E-reader device allows users to access Facebook, Twitter despite censorship.
Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle 3G e-reader is being snapped up on China’s gray market as it has an extra special advantage for customers–it automatically leaps the so-called “Great Firewall” of state web censorship.

Sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which are blocked by the Beijing authorities, can be accessed without interference by the Kindle’s Internet browsing function, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.

Amazon says it isn’t able to ship the Kindle to mainland China or offer content in the country, which has the world’s largest Internet community at more than 420 million web users, the Post reported.

However, a seller in Beijing told the paper he slipped them into China a few at a time after having them delivered to an address outside the mainland. He has sold 300 in the past month.

Dozens of Kindles are available on web auction site Taobao–China’s answer to eBay–with prices ranging from a special offer of CNY700 ($105) to CNY5,000.

Several Chinese bloggers are recommending the device, according to the paper, largely due to the fact it can “scale the wall automatically.”

“I still can’t believe it. I casually tried getting to Twitter, and what a surprise, I got there,” the paper quoted a mainland blogger as saying.

“And then I quickly tried Facebook, and it perfectly presented itself. Am I dreaming? No, I pinched myself and it hurt.”

The 3G Kindle uses global system mobile communication technology, which gives WiFi coverage in more than 100 countries, including China. The WiFi-only Kindle would rely on a local Internet connection.

Professor Lawrence Yeung Kwan, of the University of Hong Kong’s electrical and electronic engineering department, told the paper that mainland Internet patrols might have overlooked the gadget.

“Every Kindle device is pre-registered to a personal account, so every user’s information is clear,” he said.

“In addition, Kindle has a book-buying focus, so the censors may think these connections are relatively safe.”

The Kindle has its own network, called Amazon Whispernet, to provide wireless coverage via AT&T Inc.’s 3G data network in the U.S. and partner networks in the rest of the world.

A 3G wireless coverage map on Amazon’s website includes numerous Chinese cities, suggesting its 3G link involves a Chinese carrier, the paper said.

Amazon.com Inc. is showing signs of app envy.

The e-commerce giant says it plans to open its Kindle e-reader to “active content”–application programs that would allow the device to take on a wider range of uses.

Amazon’s move appears to borrow a page from Apple Inc. and its popular app store for the iPhone. It comes just days before Apple is expected to unveil a tablet computer that is likely to compete directly with the Kindle as a platform for the distribution of electronic books while offering a range of other uses, including music, video and games.

The Seattle-based company said it will invite software developers to build and upload programs that would be sold in the Kindle store later in the year. To aid in that process, Amazon plans to offer programmers access to technology and tools to help them build active content.

There will be some differences from smartphone app stores that have proliferated over the last two years. For one, the Kindle’s screen is black and white–based on a technology from E Ink that refreshes too slowly to offer video or motion graphics.

And unlike cellphone users, Kindle owners do not pay for the wireless connections on their gadgets; fees for their use of cellular networks is included in the purchase price of the device and digital content.

Kindle active content that uses only a nominal amount of wireless data–less than 100 kilobytes per month–will be sold as a one-time purchase. Other programs will be sold as a monthly subscription. And very small apps–less than 1 megabyte in size–may be offered for free.

Revenue from users of the apps would be split, with 70% of the money going to the developer and 30% to Amazon, net of delivery fees of $0.15 per megabyte. That’s similar to the revenue split Apple takes with app developers for the iPhone.

Amazon executives had previously been insistent that it sees the Kindle as a purpose-built device for reading. The company also avoided using the word “app” in its announcement. Beyond games and live-updated information, the move could open the Kindle to new kinds of book content, such as interactive academic textbooks.

“Kindle is capable of offering readers a broad range of content that goes beyond what the book is today,” said Drew Herdener, a spokesman for Amazon.

As an example, Amazon said that Handmark Inc. is building a Kindle Zagat guide, which would feature live ratings and reviews. It also said that Electronic Arts Inc. would be developing games for the Kindle.

Yet it remains unclear whether app developers will leap into writing code for the Kindle, with competing app stores proliferating on smart phones from Apple, Palm Inc, Google Inc. and others.

Mr. Herdener said he expected that publishers of newspapers, magazines and textbooks would create active content for the Kindle. “Kindle really does offer a unique experience and has a vast audience of voracious readers,” he said.

Amazon has repeatedly declined to say how many Kindles it has sold.

arnes & Noble, which has long left open the possibility of introducing its own electronic reader, is expected to unveil on Tuesday at a news conference in Manhattan what it is calling the Nook.

The device features color touch-screen controls and a gray-and-white reading display. It will cost $259, matching Amazon.com’s most recent price cut for its latest edition of the Kindle.

According to an advertisement that Barnes & Noble placed in the Oct. 25 issue of The New York Times Book Review and which was distributed to publishers on Monday, the Nook will permit readers to lend their digital books to friends and download books wirelessly.

A spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble declined to comment.

Barnes & Noble is jumping into a crowded market dominated by the Kindle. The Reader from Sony is the next most popular such device, but there are several others in the works, including electronic readers from iRex and Plastic Logic.

In July, Barnes & Noble created an e-bookstore on its Web site, BN.com, and it sells digital editions that can be read on the iPhone from Apple and the BlackBerry, as well as on computers and laptops.

The advertisement for the Nook says that consumers will be able to “access over one million e-books, newspapers and magazines.” About 500,000 of the books available at BN.com can be downloaded free, through an agreement with Google to provide electronic versions of public domain books that Google has scanned from university libraries. These editions are currently not available on the Kindle.

The Nook will feature the same kind of electronic ink technology used by Kindle and other devices. It will be sold in Barnes & Noble stores as well as on a Web site, nook.com.

The market for e-books is still small but growing fast. According to the Codex Group, a consultant to the publishing industry, the number of people who own e-readers is expected to roughly double to about 3.8 million by the end of this year, from about 1.6 million in August.