Is The Kindle With Special Offers A Sign Of Things To Come?

Amazon's latest incarnation of the Kindle - the "Kindle with Special Offers" - lets customers get a Wi-Fi only Kindle for $ 25 less than the standard model. However, the latest Kindle, which starts shipping on May 3, does more than let you get your hands on a Kindle for just $ 114 - it highlights some of the reasons as to why the Kindle is such a successful product for Amazon whilst simultaneously raising questions regarding both the method of pricing e-book readers and what further products Amazon may decide to release in the future.



The Kindle with Special Offers replaces the pictures of famous authors on the screen saver pages with adverts and special offers (hence the name). Ads will also be displayed at the bottom of the home page menu screen. The actual reading experience is, according to Amazon, not affected, Amazon will earn money thanks to ad revenue and extra sales, which means that consumers can get their hardware at a reduced price. There's something in it for everyone.



Needless to say, there will be some who are unhappy with the concept of adverts on their e-book reader, but some people seem to be against the whole idea of e-book readers almost on a point of principle. It’s a matter of personal preference at the end of the day. Of course, if anyone wants to avoid having adverts on their Kindle, they can pay a little extra and get the standard, ad-free, model.



There are a number of companies with Kindle ad campaigns prepared and ready to launch. Procter and Gamble, Chase, Visa and General Motors are a selection of companies who want to see adverts for their products on the Kindle. However, it seems probable that a lot of the ads will be for special offers which will be available direct from the Amazon website.



In many ways, you have to wonder why Amazon hasn't done this sooner. It’s the perfect advertising platform for virtually any product available on Amazon's website.



Amazon are already highly skilled at tailoring personalised offers to consumers based upon both their browsing and buying history. Targeted adverts, and the ability to make a purchase at the press of a button, make advertising on the Kindle a very lucrative proposition for Amazon.



It’s an advantage which Amazon enjoys in the e-book reader market - and one which is out of the reach of many of their competitors. However, whether or not a discount of just $ 25 is an accurate reflection of the true worth of Kindle advertising to Amazon is debatable. Some industry watchers are already beginning to wonder if we may will see a free Kindle reader in future. If the "Kindle with Special Offers" proves to be a success, then a free Kindle, possibly with some strings attached - such as a minimum number of Kindle book purchases per annum - may not only be a possibility, but might be here faster than you think.



And, as exciting as the opportunity to get a free Kindle reader may be, the success of Amazon’s sponsorship efforts has even more wide reaching implications. The prospect that Amazon will release their own tablet computer has moved beyond the realms of speculation and rumor to an event that seems to carry an air of inevitability about it. ZDNet's James Kendrick is quoted as saying that "Amazon would be remiss in not producing its own tablet.".



By closely coupling a new Amazon tablet with the Amazon web-store, Amazon would be able to set the selling price at a considerably lower level than their competition. Food for thought.





Get the facts on Amazon's Kindle ebook reader - and keep updated on the latest news on the Amazon tablet computer release date while you're at it.