[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by stonetools

(Shrug). So they'll tailor ads to different devices. Sorry, but I don't see this as the overwhelming technical obstacle you make this out to be.

Then you must not know much about ebook devices. The technical obstacles are *huge*; that's why there aren't ad-supported ebooks at the moment. Every method designed for making an ebook force ads on the reader, also restricts the readership to a very narrow fraction of the market.

I'm sorry, but I did discuss price. More than once. I mentioned the $5 spread between the ad-supported and premium versions of games. I mentioned that Amazon was able to discount $25 between the no ads Kindle and the KSO.

You mentioned how freemium products work; you didn't mention why anyone should think book publishers -- who screamed bloody murder at the idea of $10 ebooks that they received full payments for -- would accept it.

Games are generally played many, many times; the ads are therefore viewed many times. Books are often read exactly once. And there's a huge difference between "ad-supported device" and "ad-supported product using that device."

Now how much would it be worth to advertisers if an ebook displayed a splash ad every time it opened?

In what software? My Sony & Astak won't support that. What file formats? Non-kindle Mobi readers on computers won't support it either.

The Kindle will support ads-as-screensavers; the current software won't support an ad that splashes on a particular ebook opening. And if new software were written (who's paying for that programming work?), how long would the "splash" last--if it's long enough to read a full page of ad text, the ad-stripping software will be very, very popular. Nobody wants a 30-second delay every time they open their ebook.

If it only opens at the beginning of the book, then it only gets viewed once.

I don't know the answer but based on the success of the KSO, it may be worth quite a bit- maybe not $25, but maybe more than $5.

That's like saying, "based on the successful sales of backpacks with our logo, we're going to subsidize the cost of textbooks."

The Kindle has a broad audience. It sells millions. It gets used potentially daily. Any particular ebook sells thousands, gets used a few times for maybe a week, and then may never be looked at again. Especially if it has a nuisance factor attached.

Let's say its worth $5. Amazon's typical price for an ebook that's a MMPB is $7.99. Supposed it offered $2.99 for the ad-supported version, with an option to upgrade to the ad-free version for $5 more later? I'm betting SOMEBODY would take that deal, given the love of folks on the Internet for "deals" and "freebies".

Of course somebody would take that deal. The question is, who'd be paying the other $5 x however many people wanted that deal?

I'm not the only one who thinks so, which is why I pointed you to that beta site. Now its a beta , which implies "new" , "unproven" and indeed "under construction". We won't know for a couple of months what's being offered, and we may not know for some time after whether it will work.

That's not beta. That's alpha. That's design notes. The site says *nothing* about what it's going to offer, except that it involves cloud-based ebooks.

Beta is a working model that still has bugs, not an advertisement for a product that doesn't exist yet.

It shows, though , that there are people who think a freemium model can work for ebooks and who are willing to put their money where their mouth is. If they succeed even a little, I think we'll see Amazon or B&N roll out their efforts.

It says that software designers think it can work; it doesn't say that publishers are willing to support that model.