WHAT'S THAT ABOUT AN EVENTUALLY FREE-KINDLE TOUTED IN THE ONLINE NEWS?Microsoftoffice2010forums.com reports that when asked if the Kindle would ever be free (do they ask this about any other electronic reader or tablet??)
' “It’s not possible. The economics don’t work,” Jay Marine, a Kindle director said in an interview. “At $114, we think it is the best deal for a consumer electronic. We sell a lot of consumer electronics, so we should know it’s a good deal.”
What if it were tied to other offers, like Amazon Prime, which costs $79 a year and offers free two-day shipping and access to free streaming movies?
“I don’t know how to do it. I would not get your hopes up,” he added. '
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette carries the report from the NY Times' Claire Cain Miller, and I'm referencing that one because the New York Times is limited in access for most these days ... ALTHOUGH (I'd forgotten) that clicking on a link to the NYT from a blog will allow you to read the article even if you've reached your max at NY Times for the month... but it DOES count against the first 20 in a month, so I'll forego that for now.
Select paragraphs:
' By selling ads that will show up next to digital content, Amazon is laying further groundwork that could enable it to someday sell tablet computers that would compete with Apple and Google Android tablets.
. . .
"This is really about having a Kindle that's more affordable," said Jay Marine, director of Kindle at Amazon.
. . .
Readers will also be able to get discounts through their Kindles. Amazon will open the offers to advertisers, but to start, the deals are all from its site, like $10 for a $20 Amazon.com gift card or 50 percent off a Roku streaming player from Amazon. By entering the daily deal business, Amazon is competing with Groupon and with LivingSocial, the group-buying service in which it is an investor. Mr. Marine said that Amazon's service was separate from LivingSocial's.
. . .
An Amazon tablet could tie together the seemingly disparate parts of the company's business, Mr. McQuivey said, including e-commerce, e-books, video and audio.
"I can so easily see them selling a tablet in the future at a dramatically reduced price," he said. "To me, this is a way for them to test that out and to start talking to advertisers."
When asked whether the new Kindle was a move toward a tablet, Mr. Marine said, "I don't want to speculate." He also declined to say when the Kindle would have a color or touch screen...
. . .
...Craig Bierley, director of advertising and promotions for General Motors's Buick division... Because reading books is an intimate experience, he said he hoped people might pay more attention to the ads.
"The Kindle for many people is really a centerpiece of their entertainment, so their level of engagement with the device, and hopefully with the advertisers on it, will be higher," Mr. Bierley said. . . .
Bobby Calder, chairman of the marketing department at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management... books are one of the last ad-free zones, and by showing ads on an e-reader, Amazon risks alienating some users, he said.
"There's been research that shows that if you put an ad in an environment where people are highly engaged, that kind of intrusiveness can really backfire," he said. '
Read the information I left out, at the Pittsburgh Gazette.
The next quote is an especially interesting one because it answers some questions I saw in the last day.
' People could buy the less expensive Kindle and then avoid the ads by turning off Wi-Fi. Mr. Marine said Amazon did not think customers would do that because they would value the offers on the new Kindle, which is now available for order and expected to ship May 3.
"We think the response is going to be really positive because it doesn't touch the reading experience," he said. '
I noticed these quickly before looking very far. Also, there've been quite a few comments to this blog re the impact of the announcement for the commenters, and it's interesting, varied feedback, so I responded to it all and some of you may be interested in reading the reactions in the comments area for that story.
I'll have more on this...
Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), K3 Special, $114 DX Graphite
Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.
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