The Kindle is finally coming to Canada, just in time for the Holiday shopping season.
Amazon.com announced yesterday its popular electronic reading device is available for shipment immediately.
"We know that Canadians are passionate about books and reading, and we're excited to make Kindle available to our customers there," said Ian Freed, vice-president of Kindle.
Canada is all but last to jump on the Kindle bandwagon.
In October, more than 200,000 English titles went up for grabs for Amazon customers in 100 other countries.
The gadget, which retails for $259 US, can wirelessly download books in under a minute.
"Kindle enables customers around the world, including Canada, to think of a book and start reading it in under 60 seconds," Freed said.
High-resolution pages can then be viewed on a 15-centimetre (6-inch) electronic ink display.
Kindle utilizes the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cellphones such as the iPhone, so users can download new titles on demand without searching for a Wi-Fi zone. Roughly 300,000 book titles are available to Canadian literature enthusiasts through Amazon's online Kindle book store, most selling for $11.99 US or less.
Lighter than the average paperback, the Kindle can store up to 1,500 books at a time.
Users can also get magazines and daily Canadian newspapers.
The Kindle tops Amazon's list for most gifted item and number one selling product south of the border.