Amazon To Offer Ad-Supported Kindle

awyeah writes "Amazon will soon be offering a discounted, ad-supported Wi-Fi Kindle called 'Kindle with Special Offers.' The price will be $114, a $25 discount from the $139 wifi-only device. Note that the advertisements will not appear during reading, only on the screen saver and home page. Will that be enough of a discount to get readers to purchase an ad-supported device?"

Buyers Remorse

[geekmux]

"...Will that be enough of a discount to get readers to purchase an ad-supported device?"

Probably, but chances are most users, no matter how unobtrusive the ads may be, will likely regret not forking over the "extra" $25 to try and have at least ONE electronic experience that is ad-free, as one can hardly get away from advertising these days, no matter where you are.

Coffee Table Real Estate

[metrometro]

At a hardware level, the e-ink screen is begging for this kind of treatment. When powered off, it's basically a coffee-table billboard waiting to happen, married to all the radios and spyware you need to profile the house its sitting in and deliver the ads.

I'm totally grossed out by this. For now it's opt in, but it won't be in the future. Expect this to show up on all kinds of crap as e-ink screen prices drop. Lunch boxes, refrigerators, etc.

Just another reason the $75 Kobo is the best e-reader on the market (I've owned a Nook, Kindle and Kobo).

Re:not enough of a discount

[e3m4n]

They totally missed their opportunity here.. ad support is a good start but they should have worked with periodicals to create a subsidy for a steeper discount. Perhaps they could create a $40 version that required you to subscribe to the NYTimes publication for a period of 12 months that also had the ads on there. The NYT completely saves on printing cost, they expand their reading base, and amazon.com gets more devices out there. Its the cell phone concept that has proven to work very well.

Still people will complain

[pvera]

When the original Kindle came out, people complained it was horribly expensive. Whenever Amazon released a new model and/or chopped the MSRP, people complained it was horribly expensive. When it went under $200 people bitched that there was no reason for it to sell for more than $150. When the Wifi model came out for $139 people complained that there was no reason for it to cost more than $100. Now the Wifi can be purchased for $114 and people are going to come up with any excuse to complain about the price, ads or both.

I am 100% convinced that even if Amazon gives it away just for the cost of shipping (free if you are on Prime), people will still bitch and moan about the stupid ads.

I have owned two Kindles (awesome, cludgy), two Kindle 2s (awesome, period) and currently two Kindle 3 Wifi (awesome, keyboard sucks). All of our previous Kindle devices were sold to friends for a reasonable price, and all of them are (that I know) still up and running today, and each and everyone loves them.

Both my wife and myself adore this device, for people like us that read a book or more per week these devices are extremely practical. The Wifi model uses so little power that it freaks me out whenever I realize that I actually need to charge it.

Re:not enough of a discount

[Gramie2]

Just because advertising is currently unobtrusive doesn't mean that it always will be. When some manager realizes that his bonus is being threatened, it's amazing how obtrusive they are willing to get.

Of course, you could say that if it changes you would switch, and after a couple of years you might be looking for a new e-book reader anyway. Still, if Amazon is successful with an ad-supported Kindle you know that other manufacturers will follow suit and there will be few alternatives.

Remember when cable TV had no ads? I do.