Singapore's illicit love affair with the Kindle

Singapore

IF you were to look down at a map of South-east Asia, as one is wont to do, you will find the region's very own Bermuda triangle - a baffling Kindle-free zone of four countries, with Singapore in the middle.

Since the birth of the first Kindle six years ago, Amazon's e-books and its e-reader have come to be offered for sale in every South-east Asian country but not in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia or Brunei. Even so, Amazon's wunderkindle has a shadow presence here through the surreptitious import of the devices. Last year, local importer Ebook Reader Singapore sold 4,000 e-book readers, most of which were the Kindle.