Free Kindles this November?

[soondai]

http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archiv...kindle_thi.php

Ran across this on Reddit. Theory from the author of "What Technology Wants" and former editor of Wired.

Sounds plausible that Amazon might bundle a free Kindle with Prime membership.

My membership (via the missus' Amazon Mom account) or course runs out in October, but I might well re-up if this comes through

edit: it looks like an article in techcrunch he references was over a year old and not a week old as he stated. still an intriguing idea, though

[Worldwalker]

Well, I wouldn't turn down a free Kindle. I'm happy with Prime just for the shipping (thanks to where I'm living at this point, I save more than the cost of Prime just in gas not having to go 30 miles to get something). The video streaming has a great deal of promise, especially given my fondness for old British TV. But if they want to send me a free Kindle, hey, I'll use it while drinking from my insulated Amazon cup from their first anniversary.

[petermillard]

Yes, interesting comment as well regarding the cost of printing a newspaper - I'm pretty sure I've read it before, but bears repeating:-

"If newspapers switched over to being all online, the cost base would be instantly and permanently transformed. The OECD report puts the cost of printing a typical paper at 28 per cent and the cost of sales and distribution at 24 per cent: so the physical being of the paper absorbs 52 per cent of all costs. (Administration costs another 8 per cent and advertising another 16.) That figure may well be conservative. A persuasive looking analysis in the Business Insider put the cost of printing and distributing the New York Times at $644 million, and then added this: ‘a source with knowledge of the real numbers tells us we’re so low in our estimate of the Times’s printing costs that we’re not even in the ballpark.’ Taking the lower figure, that means that New York Times, if it stopped printing a physical edition of the paper, could afford to give every subscriber a free Kindle. Not the bog-standard Kindle, but the one with free global data access. And not just one Kindle, but four Kindles. And not just once, but every year. And that’s using the low estimate for the costs of printing."

Source - http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n24/john-lanchester/let-us-pay

[david_e]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

given my fondness for old British TV

It was a happy surprise, wasn't it? I just hope they continue to make more of the comedies available.

Our membership expires next month and we were discussing the value of renewal. The free streaming video has certainly made it more compelling to renew. While I have never had much interest in the Kindle device I would certainly not object to receiving one as a gift. I'm sure some family member would be willingly converted to ebooks like I was.

[Dopedangel]

I don't think they will actually start giving it away for free as its still in the growth phase but at the end of the year you might get a $50-100 amazon gift card with the purchase of a kindle

[Giggleton]

Not sure why I would need free shipping on Kindle books, I do expect the Kindle to be free at some point in the future though. Cheapo plastic Kindle, but able to read ebooks nonetheless, upgrade to new and improved kindle with streaming video functionality for undetermined price.

Just remember, nothing is free. Every Kindle is connected to the soul of its constructor.

I would expect a "Buy a couple ebooks get a free Kindle" promotion first, but the problem with that is I don't know if the masses will want that kind of thing, having not read on the Kindle beforehand. The gift card is a concession, and will probably be the thing that occurs.

[Lemurion]

Hmmmmmm - interesting thought - and it would make sense since getting Prime members over to using Kindles would cut out the shipping expense.

[Crowl]

They probably wouldn't even need to go that far to start out, they could 'randomly' offer a voucher redeemable for the cost of the Prime membership against a Kindle bought for that account where random coincidentally ended up selecting regular book buyers who didn't yet own a Kindle.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

I would expect a "Buy a couple ebooks get a free Kindle" promotion first, but the problem with that is I don't know if the masses will want that kind of thing, having not read on the Kindle beforehand. The gift card is a concession, and will probably be the thing that occurs.

Wouldn't gift cards just mean that people didn't need to spend their own money on books for a while, if they didn't intend to make the kindle free then it would seem more likely that they'd do things like offering a discount for the first year that you owned it since that would have the benefit to them of you spending more in order to get full use out of your discount and increasing the chance of you upgrading to the new model in a year's time after your discount ran out.

[jbcohen]

I'll agree there as long as the number of books are not that high; although I have one reservation about the kindle - it seems to be proprietary and can't read the industry standard format, epub.

[ProfCrash]

This has been rumored many times and has never played out. I can think of two seperate times that it was discussed at Kindle Boards.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I'll agree there as long as the number of books are not that high; although I have one reservation about the kindle - it seems to be proprietary and can't read the industry standard format, epub.

1. All of the stand-alone ereaders tied to any particular store are somewhat proprietary.
2. There is not yet a standard format. You may prefer ePub, and that's great, but it's not the standard (yet).


I've never yet shelled out the cash for Amazon Prime; I usually just wait until I have $25 of stuff to order, then order it with free shipping. However, I'm on a 1-year free trial of Prime because I signed up for Amazon Mom (free 2 day shipping on diapers? at a 30% savings over what I pay in the store down the street? shipped directly to my house? as frequently as I want? SIGN ME UP!) and I LOVE it. Even though I don't often purchase pbooks anymore, I find I still buy enough from Amazon that Prime may well be worth the cost.

[pdurrant]

I took a look at the figures. It doesn't include all the pricing data. When you do, it's not anything like so neat a straight line fit.

An even if there was a straight line fit, it's unlikely (IMO) that the trend will continue all the way to zero.

But I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a sub-$50 Kindle before the end of this year. And I'd be astonished if we didn't see a sub-$100 Kindle before the end of the year.

[wyndslash]

Wow. It's tempting me to wait. But then I wouldn't be able to use it until then of course.

[Barty]

I think you're more likely to see the reverse: buy a kindle, get Prime for a year.