The Amazon Kindle 3 is the most popular e-book reader on the market right now, by some way, and it looks like Amazon’s latest initiative will boost the popularity of the Kindle even further. From May 3, Amazon will start shipping an advert supported Kindle, which will be available with a $ 25 discount. The “Kindle with Special Offers” replaces pictures of famous authors on the screensaver with adverts and special offers.
The Kindle with Special Offers retails for $ 114 and, with the exception of the sponsored screen savers, is identical in all aspects to the standard Wi-Fi only Kindle which is on sale for $ 139. The adverts appear only on screen saver pages and at the bottom of the home screen, so they shouldn’t detract from the reading experience. However, anyone who doesn’t like the idea of adverts on their Kindle can obviously choose the standard, ad free model.
In the end, it will come down to personal preference. Some will be happy to accept the ads in return for the discount; others will prefer to pay a little extra for an ad-free Kindle. What the split is will probably depend upon the level of discount that Amazon are prepared to offer. Whether or not a $ 25 discount is quite enough to encourage a large number of customers to accept ads on their Kindle readers is debatable.
Which prompts the question; how large a discount would be necessary to make a sponsored Kindle attractive to most people? Is there a case for saying that an ad supported Kindle should be free? The answer may well depend upon how much additional business the sponsored screen savers generate.
Many of the adverts will probably be for products directly available on the Amazon website. However, there are a number of other companies lining up to sponsor Kindle screen savers, including General Motors, Visa and Procter and Gamble. It seems reasonable to assume that, with the right product, the Kindle could be a happy hunting ground for advertisers – especially if their product can be bought directly from the Amazon website.
It’s certainly not beyond the realms of possibility that, if the return on investment were to be sufficiently high, sponsorship could well result in a discount larger than $ 25. Could we see a free Kindle in future? It will be totally dependent upon the outcome of the special offers strategy.
Neither is it out of the question that we might see some similar arrangement on other e-book readers in future. It’s clear that Amazon enjoys an advantage over a lot of other e-book reader manufacturers due to the fact that the Kindle may be used to buy special offers directly. However, merchants such as Barnes and Noble could set something similar up and may well find it profitable.
It’s easy to forget just what a recent development the e-book reader and e-book market is. There are a variety of alternative pricing plans that could quite conceivably be used for e-book readers, and there’s no absolutely reason to presume that the methods we are witnessing at the moment will continue in future. It will be interesting to see how much further Amazon will push their special offer Kindle and how the other manufacturers will respond. Could it be that we will soon see the Kindle selling for less than $ 100?
I have just bought this Kindle with special offers and I don’t regret it.
The $25 dollar discount on these Kindles is worth it since you’re not going to find a cheaper price than this.
The offers don’t interfere at all.
Twitter: EBScribblings
Glad to hear that you’re happy with your new Kindle with Special Offers.
There’s no reason why the ads should interfere is there? After all, they only appear on the screen saver pages – it’s not like they pop up in the middle of your reading or anything like that.