Just tried to pre-order the Fire and was told on check-out that it's US only!!

BOO!!!

Anyone know when they're planning an international edition? I needs to be getting me one!

G
I hate how we are just left out in the cold
As discussed on another thread, I very much doubt that we'll see the "Fire" being sold outside the US any time soon, because the Amazon video services that it's primarily being sold as a content-delivery vehicle for are currently US-only.
A reporter from the Vancouver Sun asked that question: when will it be available in Canada? And the answer that came was: "Sorry. Don't know. Stay tuned."

Analysts are saying that Amazon doesn't have a business plan for international sales. To be fair, Apple rarely releases its products to Canada at the same time as it does to the U.S. BUT...they at least provide an ETA for us. Amazon is lacking that. Even when the Kindle was first introduced, they never provided a projection for Canada or other countries. One day it wasn't available, and the next day it was. And the way it was presented, it was like they were doing us a favour (as far as I know - please correct me if I'm wrong - you can't buy it at Best Buy the way you apparently can in the U.S.).

I don't quite get it. They have a great product, and they have a large number of interested Canadian consumers, all with their credit cards out. What's the deal here?
maybe I will just get an Ipad if they don;t want to bring to Canada.
"Stay tuned" seems to imply that they are working on it, at least.
this may be related to the same issues that make netflix suck so bad in canada.

really outdated distribution models are still in place that place geographical limitations on who can distribute what and where they can distribute it. of course the internet made this obvious and ridiculous - how many times have canadians clicked on a video embedded on a web page only to be told you can't view it in your area??

IT'S THE FREAKING INTERNET! IT'S EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME!!!!

anyway - i'm willing to bet this has somethign to do with amazon not having the distribution rights to the new magazines and videos that are now part of the device. fine - disable that for now for canada but let me get the tablet and use the other features!!!

it's 2011 after all... time distributers woke up and stopped desperately trying to control the means of distribution. it's over folks - distribution of digital content is forever global!

ugh.

g
The real problem is that the Fire is mostly about delivering that video and music content from their servers, and they don't have the rights to do so in Canada. If you want one now, use a US address and have it shipped to there. That's what I'm doing. And I'll see how useful it is when I'm at home. But the main reason I want it is for when I'm working in the States. BORING sitting in a hotel room at night with no TiVo and only what's on the hotel TV. And sometimes I'm so tired that I just want to watch something mindless. Even reading is too much.
It's not only the Fire that isn't available in Canada, it's also the 2 touch e-ink models.
THAT I expect to change in short order. It's most likely a supply issue. There aren't any other issues that would preclude selling the Touch models in Canada that I'm aware of, but Amazon always starts out as "US only" when the new models come out. This allows them to fulfill initial orders in the US first, making it much easier to deal with any problems that weren't caught before shipping. In a way, those early adopters become the "beta testers" for the new models.