The Kindle for iPhones application puts Amazon’s Kindle books, magazines and newspapers on the radar for Australians. I wonder if this is Amazon testing which markets to enter with the Kindle proper. It will be interesting to see if Australian publishers embrace this. They should. It’s a whole new market.
Except … it doesn’t work here, unless you’re a dab hand at circumventing the territorial ‘protections’ Amazon has built in. You can’t buy a Kindle book if your address is outside the US (although apparently if you set up a brand new Amazon account with a US address, you can download Kindle books). Similarly, you can’t buy most e-books from Fictionwise.com (now owned by Barnes & Noble) if you’re outside the US. Australian book publishers are being very, very slow and cautious in getting on-board with our local e-book suppliers — ebooks.com and Dymocks — and in general they want nothing to do with Amazon.
Tim for iPhone users who want to get around this they can quite easily.
The other important issue you raise is the controls on publishing. Content wants to be free, borderless. While this does not help local booksellers, it will come because it will suit the publishers.