Quote:
Originally Posted by OtterBooks
You have good reason to suspect this (and I did as well), however in this case it is not so. The Kindle is not like a Playstation 3 (sold at 12% under cost) or other devices where revenue comes from content and licensing. The Kindle is sold at 48% profit, and Amazon makes practically nothing on ebooks. For a while Amazon was even taking a loss on ebooks, charging less than what they paid to the publisher, in order to keep prices from harming Kindle sales. Not sure if this has changed.
The playing field may change in the future and I'm sure Amazon has that in mind, but for now Kindle sales are about profit from Kindle sales (and stuff like the covers), and they are doing rather well. It's almost an odd thing to see these days, and I sorta find it refreshing. For some reason it makes the purchase feel better to me, ha. A good ol' fashioned product. Well kinda.
They have twice as many free books as non. Just about anything they can give away without taking a loss, they do. Offering content to support a physical product. It's crazy!
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I have read this other places and was surprised. I also assumed that the profit was to be made in the ebooks.
I have been shopping for a second ereader for our household to keep everyone away from my K3. After reading this, I think I will just go ahead and buy another K3. Amazon has been good to me for many, many years and I want to continue to support them. The cheaper readers I've been looking at may be too much of a let down after the Kindle experience anyway.
