Amazon May Give Free Kindles to Combat Apple
Amazon feels the pressure from Apple.
TechCrunch reports that Amazon is gearing up to offer free Kindles. The tip comes from a "reliable source," and follows a previous program in January that refunded the money of consumers who were dissatisfied with the Kindle device (while also allowed to keep it).
According to the source, Amazon is currently determining how to provide the free Kindles to its Amazon Prime subscribers without losing money. For $79 per year, the subscription-based service offers free two-day shipping and free standard shipping, and also offers a discount when subscribers choose to upgrade to overnight shipping. The program is designed mainly for heavy users who purchase items from Amazon on a frequent, monthly basis.
The latest Kindle model sporting the 6-inch display costs $259 USD. To make the free offer work, Amazon may need to implement a required contract spanning a certain number of years. Another option would be to enforce a book club-like system that requires the user to purchase a number of ebooks per year in addition to the yearly Amazon Prime subscription fee.
The supposed free Kindle offer may be Amazon's attempt to take on Apple's prettier iPad, perhaps to sway ebook readers into choosing Amazon's cheaper option as well as giving them an incentive to sticking with Amazon's own book store.
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that is a great plan actually. People who want e-books but don't want to pay the steep price of the kindle and definitely not the ipad, would begin to purchase the complements.
I would not care if this is free or not cause I own books...real paper books and many 1st editions.In all I must have over 1200 books.
I swear never to buy a digital file I can not resell and that is not 1st edition.
I don't like contracts. There's usually a hook in there somewhere.
I'm not buying any e-reader until I can get most books from the library in e-format.
Yeah like buy 60 books get a free kindle. Except didnt they increase the price of them book by 50 percent. 9.99 to 14.99. They did it once they will do it again. So who is to say that kindle wont end up costing you an arm and a leg.
What were the cameras down that day. Seriously though with all the Big Brother that is coming out of England these days its kinda scary.
I'll pass on the Kindle and wait for the Nook's price to go down. BTW, Amazon Prime is a ripoff. I had the free trial for about three months, and all they did was hold the items I bought for as long as possible before shipping them out. The result was wait times as long as their standard shipping usually takes. Not worth it.
Yeah like buy 60 books get a free kindle. Except didnt they increase the price of them book by 50 percent. 9.99 to 14.99. They did it once they will do it again. So who is to say that kindle wont end up costing you an arm and a leg.
They didn't wanna raise the price, they were pretty much forced too by greedy publishers.
What is a Kindle and an iPad? Some sort of wanna-be Skiff ripoff?
Read an interesting article in this mornings' Wall Street Journal. If I understood correctly, iPad users will not actually purchase e-books. Instead, individuals will rent e-books. If that is correct, they can't really keep the e-books and they can't sell them or give them away to someone.
the one problem with the kindle is that it's just one too many devices. with the itouch or iphone, it's a convenient all in one feature. the iphone does the job good enough.
Even free a kindle isn't worth it.
I just bought a Kindle (still waiting for it thanks to these damn blizzards). Even though I paid full price for it I'm fine with that. I don't want anymore frekin contracts, especially to read books. I also spend way too much time staring at my desktop screen which is why you won't see me with an iPad (at least to read books).
I really had a hard time between the Kindle and the Nook but I just feel like they got the touchscreen all wrong on the Nook.
I'll get another one. lol
I love Prime. Almost everything in-stock ships next day and so far almost 90% of what I order arrives next day for free even though I use the two day service. I got a Kindle for Christmas and love it too. Would be nice if Amazon somehow reimbursed people how recently bought Kindles. Hey but a free second one for my wife would be cool too.
I love Prime. Almost everything in-stock ships next day and so far almost 90% of what I order arrives next day for free even though I use the two day service. I got a Kindle for Christmas and love it too. Would be nice if Amazon somehow reimbursed people how recently bought Kindles. Hey but a free second one for my wife would be cool too.
the one problem with the kindle is that it's just one too many devices. with the itouch or iphone, it's a convenient all in one feature. the iphone does the job good enough.
But those things are not book sized,
nor are they as soft on the eyes.
The kindle was made to emulate books, not just to get text from binary to a person.
If you get the same immersion from reading off of an itouch or iphone, then you're lucky.
This is a sign of the coming Applocalypse.
Jonathan Ive is the first rider, and the iPod his white horse. He is the false prophet spreading music downloads to the masses like some kind of new religion. Many unsuspecting souls were baptized in the digital river of iTunes.
Jon Rubenstein is the second rider, and the Palm Pre his red horse. He spreads conflict and war with his coming, inciting the masses to fight for the iTunes they longed for. He is the trickster, wearing many faces and USB identifiers in his quest to sew hate among the unsync'd masses.
Steve Jobs is the third rider, the iPad his dark horse. He brings with him famine and drought, starving the masses of their multimedia sustenance and cheap books. His vision is singular in purpose, because people don't need to have multiple visions going at the same time anyway.
Who can predict the forth rider's identity, and what pale horse he will ride. Although it could be Steve Jobs, since he has been looking rather pale lately. But that rider will bring death to the computer world as we know it, the broken corpses of desktops and laptops crushed beneath the onslaught of handheld devices. The seals have been broken, the riders have unleashed their evil plans upon the world. Nothing can be done to stop what looms ahead.
The Applocalypse is upon us.........
doom....Doom.....DOOM!!!!!
Why the hell would you still need Amazon Prime if you have a Kindle? Doesn't make sense.