Ad-supported Kindle to ship May 3rd: saves $25, includes lot of enticement

Here’s a scenario: what if we told you that your next Kindle may be had for $25 lower than retail? What if we told you it came from the rear of a nondescript white van? Or what if we told you that you just’d first have to join 842 email marketing scams? Thankfully, none of these scenarios are ones we’re seeking to inform you about. Instead, we’re here to introduce you to the realm’s first ad-supported Kindle, occurring sale within Target and Best Buy locations for $114. That represents a gradual $25 savings in comparison with the cost of today’s cheapest Kindle , but those 2500 pennies don’t come free — you’ll be asked to endure “advertisements at the bottom of the device’s home page and on its screen savers.” Furthermore, it sets a brand new precedent within the gadget arena which can really well carry over to ad-discounted tablets, netbooks, PMPs, and who knows what else. At this point, Buick, Olay and Visa would be advertising, and we get the impression that said list will bloom in due time. It’s hard to assert just how intrusive they’ll be, but Kindle director Jay Marine seems to think that “customers are going to like it.”

We aren’t so sure. While it’s crystal clear that the final populace adores coupon cutting , it kind of feels problematic to us to ship a couple of identical products that cost within $25 of each other and expect Joe Sixpack to grok the adaptation. In actual fact, we’re guessing that it will inevitably result in consumer complaints from people who can’t work out why their “on sale Kindle” isn’t nearly as enjoyable to read as “Bob’s Kindle… that he found during a sale.” At any rate, a demo of the brand new device displayed a screen saver deal “where customers would pay $10 for a $20 gift card to Amazon,” and while no ads will appear in e-books, there’s still “a transparent advertisement” along the base of the house screen. All that said, here’s the main feature that Amazon’s seemingly overlooking: an option within the software to pay back the $25 a customer skimped directly to get rid of the ads on their ad-supported e-reader. Solves the client’s remorse problem, at the least.

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This post is tagged: consumer complaints, director jay, email marketing, joe sixpack, screen saver, screen savers