New ad-supported Kindle coming soon
I’m sure deep down we all knew it was bound to happen. TV was basically invented for it, as well as radio and so on. Ads are now coming at you from more of your own electronic devices. Amazon has just announced the new Kindle which will give owners “special offers” on the discounted price of a new Kindle at$114. That’s a pretty nice little drop from the original $139, but is it worth it?
Let’s get this out of the way early, this all comes down to individual preference. Some people will take this in a heart beat, and other will scoff at it until the end of time. I want to know whether this is a worthy price point for an ad supported device, and whether this is a good thing for Amazon and the tech world? Is a mere 17% off the MSRP worthwhile when dealing with an ad-supported device? I can see people returning their Kindle’s because they don’t like navigating through all of the ads and offers just to read their books. We haven’t had a chance to play with one yet here at NBT, but CNet got their hands on one and had this to say: “while some people may find the ads irritating, you can can quickly get around the first batch of rotating screensaver ads by simply hitting the home button. However, once you do get to your Kindle’s home screen, you’ll notice a small ad running along the bottom of the screen. So far ads don’t appear within books themselves, though many feel that’s coming soon.” It doesn’t seem too bad, but can open up a lot of possibilities for annoyance.
There’s also going to be a lot of people checking out the “on-sale” Kindle thinking they can deal with the ereader giving them some shopping suggestions, only learning later it’s a little too annoying. Maybe they should have just paid the extra $25 and had a device they actually own. They shouldn’t have tried to get the bargain the first time, and they now learned their lesson. And yet others simply won’t realize they purchased an ad-supported Kindle and get confused as to why their cousin Pauline has a nice Kindle that doesn’t nudge them to this shopping plaza or that one.
Maybe Amazon decides to expand their ad services throughout your novels. You have this ad supported Kindle, and you get to see the new ad for Best Buy running for 8 seconds before the page will turn, or even have to press another button or two to navigate around the ads. I can see it now…..you’re caught up with Captain Arab reading Moby Dick, and then you have a Chunk Light tuna fish ad pop up. Oh they joys of ad-men.
This might sit well with a lot of people trying to take advantage of the $25 savings. I just don’t think that little amount of savings is worth it. I would much rather have my own toy that works the way I want it to. I don’t care how relevant or non-invasive the ads are, I don’t want to deal with all of the garbage that comes with it. That little amount of savings over the course of the device just isn’t worth it to me. Show me a Kindle that’s half-off, and maybe you can peak my interest. Maybe I can see where the ads would help subsidize the ereader. Until then, I don’t want anything to do with it. You guys?
Amazon: Kindle with Special Offers $114
