Amazon has pushed forward its European release of the Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G and is now shipping them to customers in the UK and Germany. The company started taking pre-orders for both the 3G and Wi-Fi only variations back in March, originally announcing that they'd arrive in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy on April 27th. There's no word on an early release for those in France, Spain, or Italy, but Amazon users in the UK and Germany can order immediately for a delivery date of April 21st.

The hardware is identical to the US versions released a few months ago, but there's no "special offers" loaded onto either of the variants. British and German pre-orders of the Kindle Touch will be "fulfilled in the order they were received" according to Amazon, so devices should start appearing in letterboxes from today onwards. British shoppers who want to avoid deliveries should be able to pick up a Kindle Touch at a number of UK retailers this weekend, including John Lewis, Dixons, Argos, Carphone Warehouse, Currys, PC World, Staples, and Tesco.