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Amazon To Offer Ad-Supported Kindle

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the make-me-an-offer-i-can-refuse dept.

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?"

11 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. not enough of a discount by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    An ad supported kindle should be free, or at least under $40. I would gladly pay the extra $25 to not see ads. In fact, I have.

    1. Re:not enough of a discount by e3m4n · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:not enough of a discount by tophermeyer · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Prescription, do you own/have you used a Kindle?

      The way these ads are delivered is just about the least intrusive advertising vector I can think of. The ads will be displayed on the hibernation screen that appears when the Kindle is off. On current Kindles what is displayed is a rotating selection of portraits of authors or literary illustrations. Replacing those images with ads will literally cost the user absolutely nothing in terms of cost, time, or attention.

      Quite the opposite, because Amazon's recommendation system is so robust, as a current Kindle owner I would be interested in getting this on my current Kindle. Amazon does a great job of offering recommendations for e-book purchases based on what I've read in the past. We're supposed to be living in the future, it would be nice if my e-book reader is smart enough to make intelligent recommendations on what I might like to read next.

    3. Re:not enough of a discount by Gramie2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

  2. Buyers Remorse by geekmux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...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.

  3. An important detail by Drakkenmensch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Will the device refuse to run if it's not able to connect to the ad server?

  4. Coffee Table Real Estate by metrometro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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).

  5. Oh, the horror... by Diddlbiker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...of having an ad on the cover of a device when it is turned off. Thank god your tablet, smartphone or laptop does not have a big logo on the cover, advertising its manufacturer.

    I wouldn't mind getting a $25 discount for that. The two problems that I have with it are:
    * Are the ads related to what I bought on Amazon? If I buy, say, a dozen dildos, do I have advertisments for sex toys on the cover of my kindle for the next two weeks (or until I buy something else)
    * Is Amazon going to pull a bezos on me? After two months reverting and saying "you know what, we are going to insert advertisements inside your e-book on second thought. You know, a bit like "an e-book on the kindle is just like a real book. Except that we can yank it from your shelf if we decide that's a good idea".

  6. Re:$25 for reduced battery life?!? by metrometro · · Score: 4, Informative

    Other than pinging the radio once in a while (which it could do while charging, if you wanted to be nice about it), putting ads on the e-ink screens do not draw extra power. The Kindle already flashes the screen once to show a "screen saver" image.

  7. Re:Not even close by HelioWalton · · Score: 4, Informative

    (you can't read an eBook from any vendor other than Amazon on a Kindle),

    And where exactly did you come up with this? The main problem is that it can't read ePubs, but you can load anything in a format it supports (txt, mobi, html, pdf if you are masochistic, etc....) via USB, and with some (txt, mobi I think are the only two), you can even download them using the experimental web browser from any store or website.

  8. Still people will complain by pvera · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Pedro
    ----
    The Insomniac Coder