A 'Black' version of the Kindle is launching in the UK, at a cost price of just £109 or £149 with lifetime 3G for downloading books. The Kindle - available in White in US - will be available to pre-order from now, with a despatch date given 27 August.

Kindle 'next-gen' Pictures: Amazon relaunches e-reader in UK

The lighter and more advanced versions of the american product, will be available for the first time direct from Amazon UK with the basic wi-fi version just £109 to download books from the new store that the company is launching.

"I think we [Amazon] will sell more Kindle books than paperback books in the next year [2011]", Steve Kessel, Head of Kindle this week.

The prices are significantly different from US where the cost prices are just £89 and £121 respectively.

The Kindle, originally launched in 2007 before spurning the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX - the predecessors of the wi-fi and 3G versions available today. The new versions, coined "latest generation Kindle" will be significantly lighter, 21% smaller and last one month without a charge (if wireless is off).

The new UK e-book store will run on Amazon.co.uk, and include 400,000 books including titles.

FTSE