
Ad-supported Kindle to ship May 3rd - there
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/11/ad-supported-kindle-to-ship-may-3rd-saves-25-adds-lot-of-enti/
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dotBen
It is interesting that Amazon calculate $25 to the the ARPU they can achieve
from the advertising generated over the life of the device, yet for most
people I've asked $25 doesn't seem to be enough of an incentive/saving.

Not sure what conclusion to draw from that.

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rodh257
To be honest, I've never liked the screensavers on my Kindle (probably makes
me uncultured, but I read programming books almost exclusively.) Always
wondered why I couldn't change it easily - guess this is the reason. $25 isn't
a great deal of a saving, 30-40 seems like a better saving, but I'd still
choose it, I'd actually prefer to see advertising which may interest me on the
main screen, especially if it uses Amazons recommendation engine to show me
books that I would like.

I guess the main advantage of this is that Amazon can say things like
"starting from $114!" even though many people will choose the ad-free upgrade.
I'd also imagine that down the track they'll move it down to $99 ad-supported,
which would be great for marketing.

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kariatx
I don't know if I'd be interested in cultivating customers who are that price
sensitive, especially with so many publishers insistent on the 12.99 price
point for new Kindle books. Seems like a weird move for Amazon.

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larsberg
Given the $10-13 price point for most Kindle books, I'm honestly surprised
Amazon isn't giving the device away to customers who already spend more than
$100 / year and don't have one.

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StavrosK
Oh, they will. Wasn't there a projection about this here recently?

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kgroll
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2266193>

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daimyoyo
Won't buy one until they have full color displays. While I understand that the
battery life of the e-ink is far and away superior to any color display, every
time I see a Kindle, (or any e-ink display) I can't help but see the old dot-
matrix gameboys. Having read books on my iPad, I don't think I can go back to
monochromatic displays, regardless of price or battery life advantages they
offer.

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cvander
I'll be happy to pay the extra $25 for the regular version. The ad block
included works just perfect ;-)

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nagrom
I absolutely agree. Although the comments on engadget suggest buying the cheap
version and reflashing it with vanilla firmware which could be a nice thing to
do.

