Ad-Supported Kindle?

[kjk]

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/04/...er-kindle.html

The online retailer was set to announce Tuesday that the new Kindle with Special Offers will cost $114 - $25 less than the currently lowest-priced Kindle - and include advertisements on the bottom of the device's home page and on its screen savers. Seattle-based Amazon will start shipping the newest Kindle on May 3, and it will also be sold in Target and Best Buy stores on that date.

odd.

[gollu]

Just read the news on Engadget. I like the idea, but amazon will be on the loosing side with all the hacks and cracks for the device.

[bhartman36]

I don't really get it. The difference between a 3G and Wifi-only Kindle is ~ $50. Do they really expect to pick up much extra difference when the price between the ad-free Wifi and ad-supported Wifi is only $25? If they could get it under $100, then they'd at least cross a psychological barrier where (potentially) a lot more people would buy one, but $114 vs. $139 doesn't seem that exciting to me.

[DiapDealer]

$25?? Not nearly enough savings to fuss with.

[din155]

but Kindle director Jay Marine seems to think that "customers are going to love it."

Really? Customers loving add? Off course they would love to get rid of it the first thing.
Don't know if it will work with an ereader but add supported discounted tablet or phone could be an interesting scenario.
Would pay $50 more to stay away from any add while I am reading.

[rogerVA]

$25 is $25, I might consider it if I was buying a new Kindle. I bet they'll sell a boatload, but then they would have sold a ton of the regular version anyway. Some of the offers seem very worthwhile, too, depending on how often they actually send decent ones:

Special Offers
You'll receive special offers directly on your Kindle. Examples include:
$10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
$6 for 6 Audible Books (normally $68)
$1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 Store (choose from over 1 million albums)
$10 for $30 of products in the Amazon Denim Shop or Amazon Swim Shop

[theGsayeth]

How quickly will those ads be hacked by clever kindle users? (Hmm, do we know anyone like that on this board?)

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by rogerVA

Special Offers

You'll receive special offers directly on your Kindle. Examples include:
$10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card

Now granted, math was never my best subject in school, but just how does a company give away $20 worth of merchandise for $10? It would have to be something like "...with the purchase of $100 or more", wouldn't it?

[rogerVA]

Well LivingSocial had a deal once where $10 got you a $20 amazon gift card, so they've done it before. I bet they'll offer that rarely if again.

[RockdaMan]

Koland alread loves it:

In fact, even if you already have a latest generation Kindle, may want to pick up one of these just to get the ads (I'd like that offer for a $20 gift card for $10, the $1 MP3 albums and $1/each for 6 Audio-books isn't a bad deal either, so long as you aren't forced into a long-term, expensive subscription plan).

[Hoyt Clagwell]

I am doing some beta testing for the device. Some of the screen savers can be kind of embarrassing.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by bhartman36

Now granted, math was never my best subject in school, but just how does a company give away $20 worth of merchandise for $10? It would have to be something like "...with the purchase of $100 or more", wouldn't it?

Not necessarily.
Groupon, among others, has been doing offers like that regularly.
The idea is that giving a few hundred/thousand such deals to actual customers is more cost effective advertising than giving the money to Google or some other giant media company.
B&N for one generated a nice buzz a few weeks ago when word got around that some people were buying Nooks at half price with multiple coupons.

[dordale]

Hmmmm....I think that the price point for an ad supported Kindle should be less than $100. I wouldn't want one--I'd rather not have someone trying to sell me something each time I pick up my eReader. But, I think at less than $100 they'd sell like crazy.

Question--are these set to replace the current Kindles or will users still be able to pay the higher price and get a Kindle without ads? If not, I'm willing to bet that quite a few potential buyers will go with the nook or the Sony (or other e-ink device) to avoid ads.

Edit--Just answered my own question above--went to Amazon's webpage and they're advertising the $114 with special offers; $139 wi-fi; and $189 wi-fi +3g.

dordale

[Lemurion]

At $114 they're missing the boat - target should be $99 or lower for the ad-supported model.

[Ervserver]

$25 discount isn't enough discount to interest me