I just hope the iPad makes Amazon lower prices on the Kindle. The DX is nearly the same price with a fraction of the functionality, surely this will pressure them to lower the price.
Nod.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss
If Amazon doesn't already have a name for this promotion, I suggest "Rekindle."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazda 3s
I am an Amazon Prime subscriber and don't currently own a Kindle. I welcome this news...
How many free readers would Amazon give away I wonder. Aren't there a lot of Prime subscribers?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phizz
Get ready for a flood of Kindles on eBay.
I'd buy one from eBay, to subscribe to newspapers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdlink
I sense a paradigm shift in the ebook reader market.
Give away the reader, sell the e-books?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac Voyer
As an Amazon Prime member, I wonder if I can get a free Kindle, sell it, and subsidize the price of the iPad I fully intend to purchase?
Quote:
Originally Posted by schmidm77
If Amazon is going to go down this road of giving away physical objects for free, they should be ready to deal with any anti-trust problems that arise. ... selling them for less than the cost to make them (or giving them away) to stave off competition is usually againt the law.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Orlando
This is quite a clever idea by Amazon....
Give away the Kindle and rival manufacturers (who don't have their own ebook stores to help subsidize costs) will not be able to compete. ...
"Loss leader" is probably the concept here, you're right though, giveaways are done with software (eg, Google gives away everything for free) but hardware-wise I can't think of free giveaways to "sell razors," so to speak. I don't think it's illegal however.
...this would have been kind of cool news. But now that I've gotten a flavor of the iPad, the Kindle seems like an antique. I'd take a Kindle, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't be particularly excited about it at this point.
Well what do you call it when Apple gives away free iPods? \
Interesting point. One of the reasons why I got my 13" MacBook Pro from Amazon in July is because they threw in an 8GB iPod touch for free. Of course, since I already had an iPhone 3GS I sold the iPod on eBay to bring down the purchase price of the MBP.
But I guess whenever Apple gives stuff away, it's fine. When Amazon does it, it's "sad"
Correct. Amazon does not need to sell Kindles to make money selling eBooks. I think they will be satisfied to sell content to iPad owners. Hell, they might make more profit selling iPads through their store than they currently make designing, building, advertising, and selling Kindles.
You're missing the point.
Saying Amazon can generate more earnings from iPad sales than kindle sales ignores the fact that Amazon's future eBook sales is strongly dependent on a large and growing installed base of kindles.
No cows, no milk.
Even if Amazon figured out a way to go around Apple and sell eBooks for the iPad, that would not be as user-friendly and would not knock a dent in Apple's own bookstore.
...this would have been kind of cool news. But now that I've gotten a flavor of the iPad, the Kindle seems like an antique. I'd take a Kindle, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't be particularly excited about it at this point.
I never understood the appeal of eReaders. But I've been reading books on pocketable devices since the mid or late 1990's, so maybe I'm an exception.
I've read several novels on my iPhone so far, and before that, my Treo, and before that, my Sony Clie.
The dedicated ereader hardware never appealed to me or even made sense to me at the prices that are charged for them.
Saying Amazon can generate more earnings from iPad sales than kindle sales ignores the fact that Amazon's future eBook sales is strongly dependent on a large and growing installed base of kindles.
No cows, no milk.
Even if Amazon figured out a way to go around Apple and sell eBooks for the iPad, that would not be as user-friendly and would not knock a dent in Apple's own bookstore.
As has been pointed out several times, there are Kindle reader applications for numerous platforms other than the Kindle itself. The dependence of future eBook sales on the kindle installed base is debatable. Amazon's music store seems to be doing just fine, largely because they understood the dominance of the iTunes/iPod system and made their online music downloads easy to integrate. I expect the situation with eBooks will be similar. Amazon is happy to have a symbiotic relationship with Apple (and other PC and ereader companies). As far as knocking a dent in Apple's own bookstore, remember that selling hardware is Apple's main concern. They operate the iTunes store at just above break-even. If Amazon sells more eBooks than Apple, Apple won't care, as long as they sell plenty of iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, and Macs.
That within a day of the iPad announcement, Kindle sales fell through the floor; Christmas buying season was over, unwanted kindles bought as gifts were filtering back as returned merchandise and amazon had just dropped money on a couple of million of those suckers--don't forget their inventory fiasco a few years back, when everyone wanted one for christmas but they didn't have them in stock to sell--I'd be surprised if their inventory control is the best planned part of their operations
so there they are sitting on a boatload of devices that are--as of last month--viewed by most as obsolete--so you can read one for 300 hours without recharging--big deal; most of us would trade a shorter battery for colour any day; shareholders ain't gonna be too happy when reports filter back about three million white elephants at $150 a pop are they?--so Amazon gives them away and looks good for another quarter until it becomes obvious that their ebook store is losing ground to the new kid in town
Oh gosh, a free single-purpose cripple chained to heavily DRMd Amazon-only content, with an ugly monochrome e-ink display that requires an external light source, and which offers no WiFi, only a dedicated 3GS connection that will talk only to Amazon!
At least Amazon and I now agree on what the Kindle is worth.
As has been pointed out several times, there are Kindle reader applications for numerous platforms other than the Kindle itself. The dependence of future eBook sales on the kindle installed base is debatable. Amazon's music store seems to be doing just fine, largely because they understood the dominance of the iTunes/iPod system and made their online music downloads easy to integrate. I expect the situation with eBooks will be similar. Amazon is happy to have a symbiotic relationship with Apple (and other PC and ereader companies). As far as knocking a dent in Apple's own bookstore, remember that selling hardware is Apple's main concern. They operate the iTunes store at just above break-even. If Amazon sells more eBooks than Apple, Apple won't care, as long as they sell plenty of iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, and Macs.
Got to say I agree with you there quinney. Most people forget that Apple is in the hardware business and the best way to sell hardware is to make it run seamlessly with the software. Apple have always said that most people have a minimum of purchased iTunes songs on their iPods - the majority of music is from peoples personal collections with an emphasis on open formats (i.e mp4/mp3). This is because single format platforms like Atrac players never go anywhere - I'm looking at you Sony!!
The iTunes Music Store is just a nice bonus and while iTunes milestones are good for publicity (ten gazillion sold!) the real emphasis is on the hardware/software combination because that is where the money is.
People could get their music/movie consumables from Martians for all Apple care.
Oh gosh, a free single-purpose cripple chained to heavily DRMd Amazon-only content, with an ugly monochrome e-ink display that requires an external light source, and which offers no WiFi, only a dedicated 3GS connection that will talk only to Amazon!
The iPod started out as a single purpose device chained to heavily DRMd Apple-only content and most iPods do not have WiFi.
Even today, despite offering the multi-function iPod touch, Apple still sells large numbers of iPod nanos. Not everyone wants to pay the extra to get a multi-function device.
If all you want is an e-book reader then why would you spend at least $499 on a iPad when you can get a Kindle for $259 and competitors e-book readers for even less?
The iPod started out as a single purpose device chained to heavily DRMd Apple-only content and most iPods do not have WiFi.
wtf are you talking about, I never put any Apple content on an iPod.
The iPod was introduced on 2001, the itunes music store was introduced in 2003. Are you saying that between 2001 and 2003 those iPods were basically playing white noise?
Comments
If Amazon doesn't already have a name for this promotion, I suggest "Rekindle."
Or maybe that's too honest.
Or maybe "Kindling" - because that is all it might end up being in the end.
I just hope the iPad makes Amazon lower prices on the Kindle. The DX is nearly the same price with a fraction of the functionality, surely this will pressure them to lower the price.
Nod.
If Amazon doesn't already have a name for this promotion, I suggest "Rekindle."
I am an Amazon Prime subscriber and don't currently own a Kindle. I welcome this news...
How many free readers would Amazon give away I wonder. Aren't there a lot of Prime subscribers?
Get ready for a flood of Kindles on eBay.
I'd buy one from eBay, to subscribe to newspapers.
I sense a paradigm shift in the ebook reader market.
Give away the reader, sell the e-books?
As an Amazon Prime member, I wonder if I can get a free Kindle, sell it, and subsidize the price of the iPad I fully intend to purchase?
If Amazon is going to go down this road of giving away physical objects for free, they should be ready to deal with any anti-trust problems that arise. ... selling them for less than the cost to make them (or giving them away) to stave off competition is usually againt the law.
This is quite a clever idea by Amazon....
Give away the Kindle and rival manufacturers (who don't have their own ebook stores to help subsidize costs) will not be able to compete. ...
"Loss leader" is probably the concept here, you're right though, giveaways are done with software (eg, Google gives away everything for free) but hardware-wise I can't think of free giveaways to "sell razors," so to speak. I don't think it's illegal however.
Well what do you call it when Apple gives away free iPods?
Interesting point. One of the reasons why I got my 13" MacBook Pro from Amazon in July is because they threw in an 8GB iPod touch for free. Of course, since I already had an iPhone 3GS I sold the iPod on eBay to bring down the purchase price of the MBP.
But I guess whenever Apple gives stuff away, it's fine. When Amazon does it, it's "sad"
...Amazon does not really care if you are reading on a Kindle, an iPhone/iPad or a Mac/PC as long as you buy your ebooks from Amazon.
Yeah, that's why Amazon has positioned their Kindle front and center when you go to Amazon.com
Well what do you call it when Apple gives away free iPods?
Back To School season.
Correct. Amazon does not need to sell Kindles to make money selling eBooks. I think they will be satisfied to sell content to iPad owners. Hell, they might make more profit selling iPads through their store than they currently make designing, building, advertising, and selling Kindles.
You're missing the point.
Saying Amazon can generate more earnings from iPad sales than kindle sales ignores the fact that Amazon's future eBook sales is strongly dependent on a large and growing installed base of kindles.
No cows, no milk.
Even if Amazon figured out a way to go around Apple and sell eBooks for the iPad, that would not be as user-friendly and would not knock a dent in Apple's own bookstore.
...this would have been kind of cool news. But now that I've gotten a flavor of the iPad, the Kindle seems like an antique. I'd take a Kindle, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't be particularly excited about it at this point.
I never understood the appeal of eReaders. But I've been reading books on pocketable devices since the mid or late 1990's, so maybe I'm an exception.
I've read several novels on my iPhone so far, and before that, my Treo, and before that, my Sony Clie.
The dedicated ereader hardware never appealed to me or even made sense to me at the prices that are charged for them.
You're missing the point.
Saying Amazon can generate more earnings from iPad sales than kindle sales ignores the fact that Amazon's future eBook sales is strongly dependent on a large and growing installed base of kindles.
No cows, no milk.
Even if Amazon figured out a way to go around Apple and sell eBooks for the iPad, that would not be as user-friendly and would not knock a dent in Apple's own bookstore.
As has been pointed out several times, there are Kindle reader applications for numerous platforms other than the Kindle itself. The dependence of future eBook sales on the kindle installed base is debatable. Amazon's music store seems to be doing just fine, largely because they understood the dominance of the iTunes/iPod system and made their online music downloads easy to integrate. I expect the situation with eBooks will be similar. Amazon is happy to have a symbiotic relationship with Apple (and other PC and ereader companies). As far as knocking a dent in Apple's own bookstore, remember that selling hardware is Apple's main concern. They operate the iTunes store at just above break-even. If Amazon sells more eBooks than Apple, Apple won't care, as long as they sell plenty of iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, and Macs.
so there they are sitting on a boatload of devices that are--as of last month--viewed by most as obsolete--so you can read one for 300 hours without recharging--big deal; most of us would trade a shorter battery for colour any day; shareholders ain't gonna be too happy when reports filter back about three million white elephants at $150 a pop are they?--so Amazon gives them away and looks good for another quarter until it becomes obvious that their ebook store is losing ground to the new kid in town
Back To School season.
Apple is targeting a specific segment -- back to schoolers.
Amazon is targeting a specific segment -- Amazon Prime members.
I don't see what makes Amazon's attempt "sad" as Quadra 610 said. It's not like Amazon would be giving them away to everyone.
At least Amazon and I now agree on what the Kindle is worth.
As has been pointed out several times, there are Kindle reader applications for numerous platforms other than the Kindle itself. The dependence of future eBook sales on the kindle installed base is debatable. Amazon's music store seems to be doing just fine, largely because they understood the dominance of the iTunes/iPod system and made their online music downloads easy to integrate. I expect the situation with eBooks will be similar. Amazon is happy to have a symbiotic relationship with Apple (and other PC and ereader companies). As far as knocking a dent in Apple's own bookstore, remember that selling hardware is Apple's main concern. They operate the iTunes store at just above break-even. If Amazon sells more eBooks than Apple, Apple won't care, as long as they sell plenty of iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, and Macs.
Got to say I agree with you there quinney. Most people forget that Apple is in the hardware business and the best way to sell hardware is to make it run seamlessly with the software. Apple have always said that most people have a minimum of purchased iTunes songs on their iPods - the majority of music is from peoples personal collections with an emphasis on open formats (i.e mp4/mp3). This is because single format platforms like Atrac players never go anywhere - I'm looking at you Sony!!
The iTunes Music Store is just a nice bonus and while iTunes milestones are good for publicity (ten gazillion sold!) the real emphasis is on the hardware/software combination because that is where the money is.
People could get their music/movie consumables from Martians for all Apple care.
How is giving away a previously $400+ device not sad? And how does that compare to Apple giving away their low end iPod touch with a $1000+ purchase?
How is a carrier subsidizing the price of a mobile phone with a service contract not sad?
Oh gosh, a free single-purpose cripple chained to heavily DRMd Amazon-only content, with an ugly monochrome e-ink display that requires an external light source, and which offers no WiFi, only a dedicated 3GS connection that will talk only to Amazon!
The iPod started out as a single purpose device chained to heavily DRMd Apple-only content and most iPods do not have WiFi.
Even today, despite offering the multi-function iPod touch, Apple still sells large numbers of iPod nanos. Not everyone wants to pay the extra to get a multi-function device.
If all you want is an e-book reader then why would you spend at least $499 on a iPad when you can get a Kindle for $259 and competitors e-book readers for even less?
How is giving away a previously $400+ device not sad?
More important, how is it not predatory pricing?
More important, how is it not predatory pricing?
Who are they trying to run out of business? Do they have any prospect of succeeding?
The iPod started out as a single purpose device chained to heavily DRMd Apple-only content and most iPods do not have WiFi.
wtf are you talking about, I never put any Apple content on an iPod.
The iPod was introduced on 2001, the itunes music store was introduced in 2003. Are you saying that between 2001 and 2003 those iPods were basically playing white noise?