at&t Wants a Kindle Killer?

at&t may have the iPhone exclusively in the U.S. but it certainly is not satisfied with it’s current portfolio of wireless products. at&t has already entered the netbook market and is offering subsidized netbooks to sign people up for those hefty two year contracts. But one can’t expect at&t to ignore the e-book market alone, especially when Amazon is making lots of money in the very same market. at&t has virtually no chance of getting its hands on Kindle, which is why its aggressively pursuing a worthy rival to Amazon Kindle.

What I don’t like about at&t’s aggressive plan is the fact that it will eventually lead to people having to pay for the wireless service they are using on their e-book readers. Don’t get me wrong. With Amazon Kindle, you are already paying for the wireless plan, and Amazon certainly knows how to make you a big bill with its new pricing on conversions/downloads. But can you imagine having to pay $30 a month or so for a wireless access on your e-book reader? I could as long as the device itself is being offered for free.

I am confident that Amazon may also introduce a wireless for Amazon Kindle down the road. As Amazon develops its own SDK and improves Kindle to handle video and other media formats, you can expect it to come up with premium Internet plans for folks who want to download more content to their e-book readers. That explains why Amazon has set up its user agreement as it has. A lot of experts expect Amazon to drastically improve the Kindle line in the near future, so Amazon will need to somehow pay for the load on Sprint’s wireless network.

I am personally not against paying a monthly fee for a premium wireless plan for Kindle. But that would be hard to swallow if Amazon keeps its prices as they are right now. It would not make sense to pay $360 for an e-book reader + $40 a month for a wireless data plan. If Amazon and at&t come up with free (subsidized) and internet-ready ebook readers, it may be worth paying a monthly fee.

Your turn: would you pay for a premium wireless plan if Amazon introduced it? Should Amazon charge for the wireless service you get with Kindle?