Ad-Supported Kindle?

[Rich_D]

I'm worried about the next step. e-book $9.99 with ads, $14.99 without ads.

[fjtorres]

Folks, I'm thinking a lot of people--here and elsewhere--are focusing on the wrong thing. KSO is not using kindles to sell ads (I think the ads are a sideline) they are using KSO to distribute the DEALS. It's like the weekly coupon fliers showing up in the mail; there is *profit* to be made distributing shopping deals.
edit: Here, check this:
http://socialtimes.com/groupon-gap-social-buying_b20835

Why all the buzz over Woot (now owned by Amazon) and Groupon (Google wanted it $6 billion bad!) That's why I see the Special Offers as coupons.

And why the Special Offers will continue indefinitely; the Special Offers *are* the product.

Try this:

You sign up for a new "Amazon Special Offers" service that delivers daily (or better) offers for all sorts of shopper discounts that nobody else will see. For US$114 you get a lifetime membership to this new buyer's club and, as a Free! Bonus! you get a Kindle3 WiFi to receive those deals (and select other partner ads) on, yours to keep forever and read ebooks from the Kindle ebookstore and other free ebook sites (listed on the website along with the sample deals, bw).

Think that would fly on late night TV?
On HSN?
What if they make it 4 payments of $28.99?

The ads are secondary here.
Even the reader itself is secondary; its free!
Think about it; *this* is the Free Kindle everybody was speculating about.
They're just disguising it to avoid antitrust attention and avoid alienating those willing to pay full price. Focus on the ads all you want but the real story is the Deals.

Also, about those ads: they're a shot across the bow to Google.
Think about it: Google wants to sell ebooks?
Fine, Amazon can sell online and offline ads.

And think of the possible follow-up: an Amazon-branded Android Webpad with access to the Amazon Special Offers and a built-in browser that serves up Amazon-sold ads instead of Google-sold ads.

This isn't about expanding the Kindle ecosystem as much as it is about using Kindle to build up *two* new businesses.

[porkupan]

Wow, amazing stuff! Amazon is going after the people who would watch commercials and accept ads on their spam-terminal (a.k.a. ebook device) in order to save 25 bucks. Sure looks like a great deal, doesn't it?

Of course, $25 is a lot of money in some parts of the world, but in the U.S. it no longer is. There must be some people who would give their email address to Chinese spammers for the privilege of saving $3 on a purchase of an eight-dollar SD card, but in my opinion they are doing a major disservice to their own email account. Now Amazon wants a piece of that game: to spam you, and it will give you $25 for it. Special offers! Yeah!

Who is going to buy this piece of crap? Well, I am sure there will be some takers. Mostly students or starving artists (do they read?), who will soon hack their "KSO" to convert it into just "K". Many of those cheapskates won't be buying much content from Amazon (if they can afford to buy ebooks from Amazon, they are probably not interested in saving $25 to get spammed). So, it's a pure hardware dump. With those production numbers the cost of manufacturing a kindle must have gone all the way down to $50...

I am surprised that Bezos didn't give the spam-kindle away for free with a mandatory $10-a-month content subscription (cancellable any time after 3 years). Well, maybe he will, half a year from now.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Also, about those ads: they're a shot across the bow to Google.
Think about it: Google wants to sell ebooks?
Fine, Amazon can sell online and offline ads.

Interestingly, Amazon was Google's number one advertiser in 2010 (although they made up less than 1% of Google's overall revenue)

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by porkupan

Who is going to buy this piece of crap? Well, I am sure there will be some takers.

Me ...why? Because I'm getting it free.

[wvcherrybomb]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Here are some of the initial offers for this new Kindle:

• $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
• $6 for 6 Audible Books (normally $68)
• $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 Store
• Buy one of 30 Kindle bestsellers with your Visa card and get $10 Amazon.com credit
• 50% off Roku Streaming Player (normally $99)

I'm in the market for the following items either for myself or for gifts:

• Kindle 3 - $25 savings
• Roku XDS - $50 savings
• Audible books - $62 savings
• Music - $8 savings
• eBooks - $10 savings
• Gift Cards - $10 savings

Do the math: $50 + $62 + $8 + $10 + $10 = $140 = FREE KINDLE and $26 left over.

I'm getting one - I love free when it's stuff I was getting anyway.

But aren't these just examples of deals that may be offered? How can we be sure any of them will be?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

But aren't these just examples of deals that may be offered? How can we be sure any of them will be?

You'll receive special offers directly on your Kindle. Examples of the special offers that will be available in the initial weeks 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
• Free $100 Amazon.com Gift Card when you get an Amazon Rewards Visa Card (normally $30)
• Buy one of 30 Kindle bestsellers with your Visa card and get $10 Amazon.com credit
• 50% off Roku Streaming Player (normally $99)

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Me ...why? Because I'm getting it free.

I must've missed the story here. Why are you getting it for free?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by porkupan

I must've missed the story here. Why are you getting it for free?

Its a long thread and easy to miss the actual facts among the mindless kneejerk venting.
Here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...6&postcount=72

The ads are only part of the story.
You might want to do a web search on Groupon or read the NYT article linked here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...9&postcount=86
...if you're interested in the merits of the case.

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Its a long thread and easy to miss the actual facts among the mindless kneejerk venting.

Oh, okay, I got the "math" now. The value of the coupons alone is worth the purchase. Yes, I know, and a purchase of a Sunday newspaper actually makes you a few hundred bucks (assuming you are going to clip and use all those coupons). But then again, how big is the intersection of those two sets - coupon clippers and newspaper readers?

...if you're interested in the merits of the case.

The business case probably does have merits. Just like commercial radio and magazines. I don't think this is such a great deal as Amazon would like you to believe. If it was all about saving you money, they would push those ads onto the other (so far commercial-free) kindles as well, and the users wouldn't complain. Like nook owners don't complain about getting a coupon for a free cookie when in B&N store. In fact, there would be no reason to cut the price, as you are already getting a value-add. Maybe you should even pay for the privilege of getting these great deals, like Costco customers are paying for their yearly membership!

The deal however is not so sweet. To look for an occasional "groupon-like" savings coupon you are going to have to browse the rest of the spam. You are going to make a point of reading all the ad banners and watching all the commercials (screensavers) in order to fish out the rare valuable offers. And ad-supported "free" books will be next.

Not for me though. When someone calls me on my phone with a "great offer", I hang up. If I need a coupon, I am going to look for it myself. I don't want to be bombarded with nuisance "savings" and "offers". I don't listen to the commercial radio, I support and listen to NPR. Really.

Now, if someone is about to purchase the spam-terminal just to get the "deals", I would recommend they learn about Slickdeals, ebates, fatwallet and other bargain-hunting communities. They might save a hundred bucks and find the same or even better deals. Maybe not today, but soon. Perhaps sooner than they get the KSO in their hands.

[Worldwalker]

I want the special offers ... but I don't want them on my ebook reader.

I'd be happy to give Amazon an email address to send the offers to, just like Groupon (everyone I do business with gets their own; yay for rent-a-servers and catchalls) -- but I don't want to have to buy a Kindle as the price of getting them. And, again, I don't want them on my ebook reader. I want them neatly filed in my emailbox where I can read them and respond to them at my leisure.

So in a sense I am in their target market -- for the special offers. Tying them to an ebook reader I don't need, and tying the delivery to a form I can't abide, is the deal-killer. Well, that and the $114.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

I want the special offers ... but I don't want them on my ebook reader.

Don't use the KSO as an ereader. Think of it as a $114 eCoupon device and only use it for the offers. Soon enough, it'll more than pay for itself.

[Barty]

Please don't pee on my legs and tell me it's free rain.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Barty

Please don't pee on my legs and tell me it's free rain.

Of course not; lemonade maybe

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by emellaich

I'm not sure what the concern is about ad-supported stuff. As precedents consider:
- Network TV
- Comic Books (as mentioned)
- Radio
- Paperbacks (I remember those louis l'amour westerns had card stock ads for collectors editions)

And in this case they said there wouldn't be any ads in the books themselves. Just in the screensavers and the bottom of the home screen.

And I am really looking forward to one type of in-book ad. Right now I buy the first book in a series, and I have to go to wikipedia to find the series list, and the order of the remaining books. Then I head to Amazon to buy the next book. I would love it, if the back of the book had an ad/link to 'click here to download the next book in the series'.

This.

Plus...as someone somewhere mentioned...Amazon is probably stepping down the price in increments to keep up with demand. If they had announced this at $49 they'd have been swamped with orders.