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Originally Posted by wyndslash
but i thought the ads would only be on the screensaver and home screen? it won't be while you're reading, yes? or no? :P
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No, it's not while you're reading. That's the good part.
Given how they seem to be doing it, I don't think it's an awful plan. I just don't think they priced it right. I don't think there's enough of a price difference to make people flock to the ad-subsidized one. And in fact, I think putting the ads on the screensavers may very well be ineffective.
How many people outside of MobileRead have any idea how to change the screensaver? Probably very few. So the screensaver, for most people, isn't interesting. It's something they barely notice. They flip the switch on the Kindle and it goes away. If putting ads in screensavers was effective, wouldn't PCs already have them? If they were effective, I could easily see releasing a useful piece of freeware for only the price of forcing someone to see an ad on their screensaver. The fact that it hasn't been done (to my knowledge, anyway) probably demonstrates that it's not effective.
The ads at the bottom of the Home screen make more sense to me. That's no more obtrusive than a regular banner ad, and, if the prevalence of banner ads is any indication, those are at least somewhat effective.