Images courtesy of Felix online.co.uk
It’s been suggested, perhaps rather controversially, that Amazon may make the Kindle viewer free. Check out this article on the subject:
Amazon | Kindle Price Drop Prediction.
I don’t know what you think of this, but in some ways it makes a lot of sense to me. There are many phone plans out there where the phone is tossed in as a freebie, when you sign up for particular deals, and it sounds like this system would work in rather the same way.
A Kindle, after all, generally costs less than a mobile phone, and with a defined yearly subscription cost (like a phone plan) it seems likely that it would be worth Amazon’s time to go down this path. Also, I understand that people with e-readers generally read more (or at least buy more) books. I’m not sure if this is due to an increased interest and ease of reading with a device, or if it is just that ebooks are less expensive, and sometimes free.
I imagine that there may be legal implications in terms of anti-competitive behaviour if Amazon decide to provide for free what other companies must charge for, and perhaps this will be the fallen tree on the road to e-readers for all. Personally, I am in two minds about it. The Australian urge to ‘back the underdog’ in me is not entirely comfortable with the idea of Amazon potentially monopolizing in this way. On the other hand, if it allows more people to access my work, then I can’t help be selfishly rather hopeful about it.
What are your thoughts?
seems like a good idea, they only invented it as a gateway tool.
It makes sense to me. I don’t see a problem in terms of competition with other companies – a reading device like this isn’t a necessity, and if they start giving it for free in this way, then other companies will have to either offer a deal that is equally appealing, or they will probably fail, that’s business I’m afraid!
I don’t think Amazon would want to alienate their customers either by monopolising the whole market and taking advantage of that by screwing customers in other ways, but maybe I’m just a bit naive.
Thanks for the link. Good article. I do purchase loads more books now I have the Kindle. I think the price will continue to slide as they launch newer products. Once you’re in they continue to make money from you buying books in their store. Win win for them really.
thought this comment about hardware might be interesting:
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/15/hardware-is-dead/ — content is everything now
Yes – very interesting. It sounds like it is already underway. With so many books free as well, it seems like the only valuable thing left is our time! And our imaginations of course.
yes, perhaps that’s the economic model that works in this changing world.