Rise and Fall of the eReader

Originally Posted by Sregener

Only if the price for Prime Membership were to increase dramatically. And if people wouldn't root the device so they could use Google Play. I can see a lot of people signing up for a year of Prime to get the device and then never buying anything from Amazon, just so they could get the tablet.

It is still realistic, even without an increase in price. Low end tablets can be found for less than $100. The performance of those low end tablets will eventually improve to the point where Amazon can offer a free tablet, under contract, without disappointing customers. Since Amazon has a very large and broad customer base, a relatively small proportion of their users would root the device. Amazon could also limit the offer to new customers, with periodic free upgrade offers to loyal customers, thus making the leeching a one time deal. It could be worth while, since consumers would be locked into Amazon.

The main concern would be if other vendors followed suit. In those cases, people may simply start obtaining multiple tablets from multiple vendors in order to get the best deals. Even though it adds an element of inconvenience for the consumer, it would still be more convenient than things were a few years ago.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Sregener

Only if the price for Prime Membership were to increase dramatically. And if people wouldn't root the device so they could use Google Play. I can see a lot of people signing up for a year of Prime to get the device and then never buying anything from Amazon, just so they could get the tablet.

The amount of people that root these devices is grossly overstated.
The vast majority of buyers use them as is and don't even pay to remove the ads. (Most actually *like* them. Go figure. )

That said, I do agree that "Free" FIREs are unlikely but only because the things have too many uses that don't lead to sales. Plus the psychology of subscription services I referenced above: Amazon wants people to *use* the product. Free hardware can end up in a drawer unused.

Selling FIREs at low profit to harvest the added content revenue makes sense because the hardware pays for itself. Any content sales are pure profit.
Expecting the content to pay for expensive hardware is much dodgier. Look at the : there are 10-12M Prime subscribers so giving out even cheap sub-$100 tablets would cost north of a billion. You'd need to sell a lot of content to pay for that. Content that you might sell without giving out the free hardware.

Bezos is tricky, not crazy.
(On the other hand, I could see Amazon giving Prime subscribers Free STB boxes. Those are cheaper to build.

[Josieb1]

I read fan fiction, its available online and I have an iPhone and an ipad, I don't read it on them, I download it to my laptop and read it on an ereader. I have 4 ereaders, and in my lifetime have owned another 5 I have sold on. I want to watch movies and surf the net, emails etc on my ipad, a screen that size is too big to use as a reader, and a screen the size of my ereader would be a bit too small for movies. Plus the inability to read in sunlight on a LED screen is my biggest issue.

I can't imagine ever not wanting an ereader and I hope the market doesn't assume we all want to read on tablets. In fact I am willing to upgrade my KPW every year to the latest model to ensure Amazon know I don't want a tablet to read on!

[hidari]

Has Edward Gibbon written a history of the ereader yet?

[usuallee]

Originally Posted by hidari

Has Edward Gibbon written a history of the ereader yet?

Yeah, but it's only available in scroll

[Agar242]

It looks like the tablet is heading into the "replacement laptop" category. Everything you do on android/iOS tablets you can do on your smartphones. Why not make the tablet a laptop replacement instead? With that being said the tablets will be even more of a distraction for readers. I don't think that eink will become dead for quite some time because most people won't want to read on a bulky tablet computer. For me personally I have an iPhone that does everything an iPad does, I have a desktop, and will soon be purchasing a windows8 tablet (razer edge pro-woot gamer tablet!). But I still love my kobo mini for dedicated reading and take it with me EVERYWHERE! It's more attached to my hip then my phone :P

[Mscottj]

Originally Posted by usuallee

Yeah, but it's only available in scroll

Seven of them, weighing two pounds each.

[Katsunami]

As I've said in other posts... At some point, the 7 inch tablet and 6 inch reader will converge into one device. This will happen when there's a screen technology that combines the advantages of e-ink and TFT/LCD. Basically, it'd be an e-ink screen with bright colors and super fast refresh.