MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - engadget: August Kindle is Shasta, with WiFi

fjtorres · 06-01-2010, 08:02 AM

With current ebook pricing, Whispernet is paid for with book purchases; plenty of profit margin in the price-fixed books to subsidize it for the competitively priced books.

If Amazon wants to do a dirt-cheap loss-leader Kindle all they have to do is take out the browser or code it to work off the WiFi only. Whispersync sells Kindles, the browser (so far) doesn't. No reason to drop the 3G unless it is for an international version and even there a solution would be to sell the 3G version without a SIM card.

A Kindle without 3G would have to be a real cheap kindle, like US$99. And odds are, they can hit that price point *with* 3G.

06-01-2010, 08:02 AM	#8
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	With current ebook pricing, Whispernet is paid for with book purchases; plenty of profit margin in the price-fixed books to subsidize it for the competitively priced books. If Amazon wants to do a dirt-cheap loss-leader Kindle all they have to do is take out the browser or code it to work off the WiFi only. Whispersync sells Kindles, the browser (so far) doesn't. No reason to drop the 3G unless it is for an international version and even there a solution would be to sell the 3G version without a SIM card. A Kindle without 3G would have to be a real cheap kindle, like US$99. And odds are, they can hit that price point with 3G.