New lower price on Kindle - $114

[leedr]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Sign me up for one. It'll be free after I get the initial offers. Can't beat free

It won't be free, but you'll pay $100 for $200 worth of stuff (if you go for the Visa card offer). This is like how the rewards programs work at drug stores and the like. "Free after extra bucks" at CVS. You pay $2 now, but then you get $2 later. You still have paid $2, you just have $2 more to buy the next thing. Which is fine, but it's not free, it just costs half as much.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by leedr

It won't be free, but you'll pay $100 for $200 worth of stuff (if you go for the Visa card offer). This is like how the rewards programs work at drug stores and the like. "Free after extra bucks" at CVS. You pay $2 now, but then you get $2 later. You still have paid $2, you just have $2 more to buy the next thing. Which is fine, but it's not free, it just costs half as much.

It'll be free, because many of the items I planned on paying full price for over the next few months are also in the offers.

[poohbear_nc]

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief that Amazon didn't take the plunge and use this opportunity to launch the long-expected and anticipated $99 Kindle - it's an advertising no-brainer!
I mean .... $114? versus $99? for the (alleged) sales volume of Kindles? With vendors paying Amazon for ad space? With the consumer draw of a $99 price point?

[koland]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

It'll be free, because many of the items I planned on paying full price for over the next few months are also in the offers.

Exactly.

I buy music at Amazon -- I pretty much pay more that $1/album for those I'm willing to pay for.

I spend money at Amazon - a $20 for $10 certificate is essentially $10 off the price of the Kindle (more if they do it more than one over the life of the Kindle; after all, the let millions buy one for no reason at all, recently; the one I bought from B&N was valid on ebooks, so there is no reason Amazon can't do the same).

I don't really buy audiobooks (but have some here that I got for free). But, I do know many people that do. Getting 6/$6 is a big savings for them.

It's no different that the ads on the nook; except I only have to turn on wifi to be in my store (not drive over 20 miles one-way, half on interstate highways, half on 2-lane roads). And the coupons are "maybe there" (often there is no special offer or it's a lame offer for a paper book). Sure, the nook gets me a free drink now and then (value: under $3; cost to get there: over $5), but it appears that this Kindle will give me coupons for shopping I already do.

It's more likely that the K3 w/o special offers may become the one where you don't get to take advantage of specials (which is ok, some prefer not to save money or be reminded that stores exist). I do predict that after Amazon gets their act together that those with older K3's will be offered some time of "side-grade" path to be able to get the coupons, so they can take advantage of offers that are only going to those who paid less.

I also look to have Audible add this K3 back to their list of devices that qualify for the big rebate if you buy them with an Audible plan (after all, if they gave you another $100 off, it would cost you $14, plus $6 for those 6 audio-books, the two you get free to start an Audible trial, then probably a standard 1-year contract, with 12 additional audio-books at the regular monthly price).

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by koland

I spend money at Amazon - a $20 for $10 certificate is essentially $10 off the price of the Kindle (more if they do it more than one over the life of the Kindle; after all, the let millions buy one for no reason at all, recently; the one I bought from B&N was valid on ebooks, so there is no reason Amazon can't do the same).

Yep; the key to making it free is that the offers you take advantage of are also items you were going to buy anyway (with or without savings). Here's my post from another thread explaining my rationale:

Here are some of the initial offers for this new Kindle:

• $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
• $6 for 6 Audible Books (normally $68)
• $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 Store
• Buy one of 30 Kindle bestsellers with your Visa card and get $10 Amazon.com credit
• 50% off Roku Streaming Player (normally $99)

I'm in the market for the following items either for myself or for gifts:

• Kindle 3 - $25 savings
• Roku XDS - $50 savings
• Audible books - $62 savings
• Music - $8 savings
• eBooks - $10 savings
• Gift Cards - $10 savings

Do the math: $50 + $62 + $8 + $10 + $10 = $140 = FREE KINDLE and $26 left over.

I'm getting one - I love free when it's stuff I was getting anyway.

[Joonbug1]

Wow, that's the lowest price I think I've seen ANY ereader so far. Even if it doesn't have the wi-fi, you can always upload more ebooks directly via USB, so this is quite the bargain!

THOUGHT: I wonder if this is their way of getting rid of extra units before they announce a new model??? I seem to remember a similar strategy enacted around the time the K1 phased out before the announcement of Kindle 2 coming out...

[koland]

Originally Posted by Joonbug1

Wow, that's the lowest price I think I've seen ANY ereader so far. Even if it doesn't have the wi-fi, you can always upload more ebooks directly via USB, so this is quite the bargain!

THOUGHT: I wonder if this is their way of getting rid of extra units before they announce a new model??? I seem to remember a similar strategy enacted around the time the K1 phased out before the announcement of Kindle 2 coming out...

It has WiFi - it's identical to the WIFI only Kindle (in every spec), except for the screen savers, bottom of the home page (and the price).

[twobits]

I am a bit tempted by this. I use a reader that can read epub, and plan to buy in that format for any books I do buy. However I do have a number of books now for the kindle, just signing up for the freebies that look somewhat interesting here. I hate reading them on my laptop though, so have always figured someday there will be an einkish android tablet out I can run the kindle app on and then read the building library of free books on. So as a secondary device to be able to comfortably use my kindle library on it gets tempting to say, ok why not get the cheaper unit with the ads. At $99 I probably would by now, and with the $20 for $10 gift card deal, really I am holding out over $5? Odd... but that is how it is for now. And even the $99 is a decent percentage of the future price of the mythical tablet I am waiting for... sigh... flip a coin?

[koland]

If you don't already have an Amazon card, there will be an offer (a coupon/offer via the new Kindle) that gets you a $100 credit if you apply and get approved....

so, it costs you $4, if you do only those two.