The world’s most popular e-book reader just took a step closer to affordability in India. The price of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader has been slashed to $189, which when combined with shipping and handling and import fees, comes to about $ 283.92 if you place your order online: somewhere in the vicinity of Rs 13,000. Yes, we are sure that even that figure will make some of you wince, but when you consider that the device had been launched in India at a price of $279 in October, which translated into a total cost of almost $ 373 (Rs. 17,000), thanks to shipping and handling costs and import fees, it is really not that bad a deal, especially after the last software update, which included PDF support and a number of other very handy tweaks.
Of course, the price of downloading books directly on to the device remains on the higher side (thanks to the additional $2 slapped on to the price tags), but we reckon that more users might think seriously about the Kindle, now that it is closer to the psychological cut-off point of Rs 10,000, and now costs about as much as a mid-level smartphone, and comes with inbuilt data connectivity (which is currently limited to browsing and downloading books, but still…).
