

Amazon adds 1 free book rental a month for Kindle users with Amazon Prime - onemoreact
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_357575542_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000739811&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gateway-center-column&pf_rd_r=0C2QDM83F877YDQVEEBK&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1328879142&pf_rd_i=507846

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untog
I'm not surprised that Amazon is pushing Prime heavily- once you've got people
paying a regular subscription (especially one as low as $80 a year) they'll
rarely stop paying it.

I'm close to signing up. I tried the month free trial and enjoyed the
shipping, but barely used the on demand video because there wasn't that much
recent stuff on there that I could actually rent for free. I imagine that
Amazon is quite committed to changing that.

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shazow
Very true.

Not to mention that the inhibition to purchase drops significantly. Before
activating Prime I knew there was an invisible $25 Super Saver free shipping
barrier that I had to break before I would complete an order on Amazon. Now
with Prime, I activated One-Click Buy and haven't looked back. It's addicting
having a new package arrive at your door every day or two.

<Obvious warning about irresponsible spending unrelated to the business angle
of this discussion />

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kenjackson
Amazon + great shipping logistics + cloud + huge retail + mobile devices +
Bezos = ???

There are synergies here I'm fairly certain I don't understand -- I look
forward to seeing what Amazon can do over the next 5-10 years.

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ConstantineXVI
Amazon's foray into mobile is "just" a natural extension of their retail
business. The primary purpose of the Kindle and their variety of mobile
apps/services is to get consumers to buy digital goods from Amazon; just as
Amazon (the retail) is to get consumers to buy physical goods. The logistics
plays a large role in keeping the physical goods flowing; AWS gives them a
solid platform to keep the digital goods flowing.

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jameshart
But the interesting thing is, I think, how Amazon realised that building a
superior delivery network for bits would be just as much of an advantage as
having a superior delivery mechanism for atoms was. You buy a kindle from
them. Amazon ship it to you. You turn it on, buy things, and the bits just
arrive. And Amazon have that process down better than anybody, even Apple.

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jonstjohn
I've been a prime user for the past year or so. Seemed a bit indulgent at
first, but really love the service. Free 2-day shipping seems un-necessary
when you can get super-shipper saving but every time my packages show up in
two days, I'm grinning. I still have a Netflix account, but despite my love
for Netflix it might only be a matter of time before I switch to Amazon Prime
streaming (I don't watch a lot of TV). Now with this? Great deal.

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jemfinch
I originally signed up for Prime because it saved me money. Not because I was
paying for a lot of fast shipping, but because I would frequently have a $10
item I wanted to purchase, and i would add $15-25 worth of stuff to _get_
super saver shipping. With Prime I just buy what I want, when I want, and
never worry about shipping costs or meeting a threshold for free shipping.

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tomkarlo
Prime changes how you shop. I used to put things in my shopping cart, figuring
I'd buy them later if I had something else I wanted and could drive the price
over $25. Now I just buy it right away if I figure I need it - there's no
hassle, no shipping fee, and I know that if it turns out I don't want/need it,
it's trivially easy to return it and I won't be charged.

It also means Amazon is the first place I check for just about anything I buy
online: over time I've found that it's highly unlikely that the difference in
price (esp. with shipping) is going to be enough to cover the potential hassle
of ordering somewhere else.

Prime is a huge win for Amazon. They take loyal customers, increase order
volume and push the customers into ordering from a wider range of categories.
More dollars from those customers end up going to Amazon, and the customers
become less price sensitive as well.

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atourgates
Is there any way to get a list of the available books without looking on a
Kindle device?

It's hard to evaluate just how valuable this will be without being able to
browse the selection from a computer.

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bbgm
kindle.amazon.com lists all the books you've purchased, all the devices you
have, etc once you log in.

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pavel_lishin
I'm a little confused - so in any given month, I can only borrow a single
book? Or, is it that for any given book, I can only borrow it once a month?

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DasIch
You can only borrow a single free book per month. If you want to borrow more
you will probably have to pay.

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pavel_lishin
In that case, it sounds like a nice bonus for Prime members, but I'm not going
to pay $80/year just to get one free book for a month that I have to return
later.

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ctdonath
Of course you don't pay $80/year just to access ~$120 worth of book content.
You pay to also get free 2-day shipping, a large library of free streaming
videos, and what we can assume will be a growing pile of other benefits as
time passes.

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ErrantX
In the UK prime is bittersweet. Here all we get is free 1 day delivery.

That alone is pretty good - and for a "power user" of Amazon like me (who used
to spend multiples of the £50 prime membership in delivery a year) it rocks.

But we don't get any of this good stuff (streaming/books).

Which is a shame because I suspect it would finally convince me to buy a
Kindle :)

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mcpherrinm
Less than a year ago, all you got in the USA was free _2_ day delivery.

Licensing videos and books is surely very complex legally, so starting more
than one country at a time would undoubtedly be very hard.

I'd hardly call that "bittersweet".

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mrud
Previous submission/discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3190307>

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wattjustin
Give us Canadians the chance to subscribe! But regardless, this is just
another great reason to subscribe to Prime in my opinion.

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twodayslate
This is perfect for me. I don't read that much so one book a month is more
than enough. Sold

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RexRollman
I love Amazon but let my Prime membership lapse after reading about the
working conditions at Amazon's warehouses. I am not sure if I want to do
business with them anymore.

