Free Kindles For Amazon Prime Customers?

If you have been an Amazon customer, there is a good chance you have heard of Amazon Prime Program. After all, Amazon goes out of its way to encourage all its customers to take advantage of the program to receive more shipments for less money. Amazon Prime members are known for spending more money and are often dubbed as Amazon’s “best customers.” As it turns out, Amazon may be getting ready to show its appreciation for these customers by shipping them a free Kindle.

Michael Arrington from TechCrunch has made the claim that Amazon may be seriously thinking of this strategy as a way to get the Kindle in its most loyal customers’ hands. It won’t be easy however:

And they are also likely to buy multiple books per month on their Kindle devices. If those users buy enough books, and Amazon gets the production costs of the Kindle down enough, Amazon can get Kindles into “millions” of people’s hands without losing their shirt.

I don’t doubt that Michael has a very reliable source, but I am very skeptical of this move. I can see Amazon giving away Kindle 2 to Prime Customers a month or two before releasing Kindle 3. I can also imagine Amazon asking its customers to sign up for multiple year Prime agreements. However, I am not sure Amazon can bring the production costs low enough to justify giving those Kindles away for free as things stand today. Of course, if Amazon did pull off such a move, it would be Amazon’s most aggressive strategy to date, at least as far as its Kindle program is concerned.

I do believe that more affordable Kindles are on the cards in the near future. Not everyone is ready to spend $250 on an e-book reader. Apple has been very aggressive with iPad pricing as well. So price competition will be part of the whole equation in the e-book reader industry. Considering that e-book prices could be going up soon, one way to keep customers happy is by lowering e-book reader prices. So don’t be surprised if Kindle prices dropped to $199 in the very near future. If Apple can pull off an affordable tablet, there is no reason Amazon can’t make its Kindle more affordable.

Your turn: would you consider joining Amazon Prime just to get your hands on a free Kindle?