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Maybe you were; I don't read my ebooks on anything that can access a web page. Any ads in the book would have to be established at time of sale, and wouldn't have clickable links. And I'm hardly rare in that.
Limiting ad-based ebooks to web-enabled readers means cutting down advertiser's ability to reach potential customers. Smaller audience = less willingness to pay to reach them.
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Well that's you: most folks these days read their ebooks on an at least wifi enabled device. The original KSO was wifi only and was a big success.
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So: you are proposing that Amazon will update the Kindle software to detect books that have ads, so that when those books are opened, there'll first be a splash page with an advert? (Is this *only* on the Kindle, or does it include people reading on the Kindle app on their iPhones? Do they see the same ad?) Would these ads only be for Amazon ebooks, or would they be in other ebook stores?
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It would start with Amazon, building on the success of the KSO but other stores could adopt it. Don't see why there couldn't be NBSOs and KBSOs. It would also work for Kindle App users.
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f the reader has to wade through 10 ads every time he opens the book, ad-stripping software will be as common as Adblock Plus--or people just won't buy the ad-infected versions. Unless, of course, they're all on one page... but 10 ads on a Kindle screen are awfully cramped, and it's worse on an iPhone screen.
People will tolerate a small bit of nuisance for a lower price. If the nuisance is too high, they'll seek workarounds, or just not bother with the item. If it takes 5 clicks to get past the ads on every book opening, or every chapter break, most people won't buy a second ad-subsidized book. A lot of them, not understanding the whole ebook thing, won't buy a second ebook at all. It usually only takes one bad experience as one's first foray into new tech to give up on the tech entirely.
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Let's try this again. What you get when you open a KESO is a prompt window with two options: a link that takes you to a web page with your Special Offers and a " Continue Reading" option.
There is no splash page with ads.
The prompt window opens in seconds and by clicking a link you can go instantly to your SO page or to your last visited page in your ebook.
Remember, if you buy a KESO, you WANT to see those special offers. The first time you buy a $20 Amazon gift card for $10 or you buy an Amazon product at a discount, you've made back the price of your ebook. Go back and re-read Tubemonkey's posts. Trust me, that is one happy customer. I guarantee you that ad-stripping hackery will not be a problem.
Now, is this idea a perfect solution? Nope, but it is certainly doable, with off-the shelf technology, and is an expansion on an already successful marketing idea. Amazon would roll this out with lots of promo ads explaining what the concept is and how cool those Special Offers are.
Of course, if you want to avoid ads altogether, just pay full price and buy a regular KE. You can tell your grand kids , " I was never taken in by those new-fangled ad-supported ebooks, by cracky. "
This is only one way; my guess is that there are other, better ways to put ads in ebooks that someone with better marketing and technical chops than I are already thinking of.
You can rest easy, btw. Amazon has said that it isn't thinking of putting ads in ebooks .... yet. Once it or someone else thinks of a non-obtrusive, consumer-friendly way to do it, it will happen.