Amazon hears footsteps, drops Kindle price

The on line retailer said a new Kindle -- now priced $40 less at $259 -- would allow readers in 100 countries to download English-language material almost instantaneously.

"A book that may take two weeks to get shipped internationally in physical form can now be delivered in less than 60 seconds," Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos told USA Today.

Downloading a book on the previous Kindle overseas required transferring content from a computer with a USB device. The current Kindle bypasses that process, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

Bezos said, "we're lowering the price because we're able to."
"This is going to be a big industry. There's room for multiple winners," he said.

Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said Amazon has a 60 percent share in the electronic readers market, but is aware of the competition.

Sony, for example, offers a $199 Reader Pocket. Google has scanned more than 1 million books for digital distribution, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International.