Amazon’s Answer to iPad 2: Free Kindles?
2We have been calling for Amazon to make Kindle free for a couple of years now. It is not an easy decision to make but it could do wonders for Amazon Kindle platform. Amazon has dropped Kindle’s price from $399 all the way down to $139 in a matter of a couple of years. It is not hard to see Amazon making Kindle free in the near future the way it has been reducing its prices. The below forecast by Technium demonstrates how and when this will happen:
Courtesy of Technium
Offering Kindles for free is going to cost Amazon a whole lot of money. But it is not a sunk cost. It is a risky investment that could pay huge dividends for Amazon’s e-book business. A book subscription plan is the cure to this problem. Music subscription plans have proven to work in the past. There is no reason for Amazon not to try an e-book subscription plan and give away free Kindles to make people want to sign up for those subscriptions.
As Wired co-found Kevin Kelly suggested:
I don’t know if this is Amazon’s plan, but it should be. It brilliantly feeds into Bezo’s long-term strategy of nurturing extreme customer satisfaction. What could be more satisfying that a free Kindle, free movies, and free 2-day shipping for $80 a year? If the past is any indication of future events, expect an as-if-free Kindle this fall in time for the holidays. Brilliant indeed!
It is most likely that Kindle 5 (and not Kindle 4) will be a free device (if Amazon decides to go in that route). The e-book industry is growing fast but is still not at a point where Amazon can rely on e-book sales to cover the cost of its Kindle units. Amazon can always bundle e-books with videos and other types of content to make its subscription plan work for its upcoming Android tablet. A solar, free Kindle has been a dream of mine since I started blogging about e-readers. Will we ever see one? It looks more likely at this point.
In your opinion, what is the fair price for Amazon Kindle?
