Just weeks ago, Jeff Bezos, the founder, president, and CEO of Amazon.com, unveiled a new version of the Kindle 2 with International Wireless capabilities. On the surface, this announcement appeared to be the harbinger of a global consumer invasion, drawing those living and traveling abroad into the warm fold of Kindle ownership. As is the case with anything spanning international borders, however, things are not always quite as simple as they seem.

Despite assurances on Amazon’s page that most titles and New Releases are going to be pegged at the attractive $9.99 price point, subsequent interviews with The Guardian revealed that international customers will be paying as much as 40% more than their American counterparts, to the tune of $13.99 per title. When you also consider that the International Wireless version costs $20 more than its domestic counterpart, it’s easy to see why potential international users are wary. The Amazon spokesman interviewed by The Guardian cited factors like higher tax rates abroad for eBooks than print books, but that doesn’t explain the higher fees they want to charge in other places, like Australia.

It appears that the blame for the higher cost likely lies at the feet of the new partnership Amazon has with AT&T, who will be providing the wireless 3G service for international users. Existing Kindles in the United States currently utilize the Sprint network to connect to the Internet and deliver titles wirelessly to the device anytime and anywhere. But while Sprint has much lower operating costs for their wireless network than AT&T (which might help explain the recent price drop), AT&T’s strategic partnerships with foreign wireless carriers gives them an advantage in coverage area that other providers can’t match.

This higher price point might have been but one slight bump in the road to global success, but it’s hardly the only area of resistance. Amazon has also struggled to secure deals with the book industries in other countries. The 200,000+ titles currently available might suffice for American users, but users in Australia, for instance, might be reluctant to make the plunge knowing that the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has resisted publishing anything through the Kindle.

That organization, which represents 3000 Australian authors, has expressed displeasure with Amazon’s price model. Jeremy Fisher, executive director of the ASA, explained their reasoning in a piece by The Age, remarking, “As I understand at this point in time, Amazon asks for a very, very big discount from publishers for their works to be included in Kindle so that the return coming back to the publisher is smaller and the return coming back to the author is smaller.”

With Australia’s two biggest newspaper companies also taking a very ‘wait and see’ attitude regarding the Kindle and its competitors, citing similar complaints about their cut of the take, the battle for international e-Reader dominance is wide open. While I’m more than willing to admit that I’m a total Kindle loyalist, having an open and competitive marketplace produces the best products at the best price for consumers, so I say let the battle begin!