A device this small cannot be compared in its screen quality against some of the main stream ereaders such as the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, but as a stable half way house, Nintendo may be onto something. They recently launched 100 Classic Book Collection that included titles from Austen, Dickens and Shakespeare. By looking at the reviews at Amazon it seems to have been well received.

Now Nintendo have gone one step further and secured a deal with Egmont the Danish publishers of the Winnie the Pooh titles. These will be available to read on the DS and DSi games consoles and along with other children’s titles will open a whole new reading media aimed at 7 to 11 year olds. Other books expected to feature on the Nintendo DS platform include the Enid Blyton series.

Early days yet, but lets hope that ebook readers encourage kids to get back to reading books, even if its in the form that they were not originally intended.

I have yet to work out the pound to dollar exchange rate, but by the time you factor in the shipping charges and any import taxes that may arise I would expect that the take up rate is going to be low. Even with the Christmas period looming where the gadget hungry consumer may have an ebook reader in their sites, I suspect that they would prefer to get their hands on one of the latest Sony readers rather than take a chance on a missed delivery from the states.

There is also some confusion as to who will be the phone carrier that powers the Amazon Kindle wireless network that allows users to download books and other media whilst on the move. AT&T are to have control over this network as they do in the US, but the powers that be were being a bit vague as to who AT&T would be partnering with in the UK.

More news to come as soon as certain things can be clarified.

UPDATE
UK Price after dollar conversion will be about £175 plus VAT which at 15% is £26.25. So expect to pay around £200 for the import version of the Kindle 2 plus any shipping charges.

Delay of the Kindle by Amazon to the UK has been caused by a drawn out affair regarding a suitable telephone network being compatible with its proprietary wireless download platform. It now seems that Qualcomm, who was given the task of finding a suitable wireless solution for the Kindle 2 reader have now overcome initial problems and have worked out how to get the reader working in the UK.

No news on price yet, but on the basis that they are being sold for about £190 stateside and with the new Sony PRS 300 and PRS 600 spanning the the £180 to £250 mark,  I would think that the Kindle will feature around £200.

This offer is open to both the Sony Touch PRS 600 and the Sony Pocket PRS 300.