Ad-Supported Kindle’s a Hit, and Now It’s 3G, Too

By  |  Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 9:59 pm

Turns out, people will gladly stare at an occasional ad on their Kindles to save a little money.

Amazon’s Kindle with Special Offers, an e-reader that shows advertisements and discounts on its home screen, is now available with a 3G connection. Like the Wi-Fi model, the 3G Kindle with Special Offers is $25 cheaper than its ad-free counterpart, selling for $164. The Wi-Fi version sells for $114.

There’s not much more to say about the actual device, but Amazon’s press release does a bit of boasting to prove that the ad- and offer-supported idea took off. After five weeks on the market, the Kindle with Special Offers became the best-selling model. The addition of a 3G version was “in response to customer requests,” Kindle Director Jay Marine said. In other words, this idea isn’t going away.

So why stop there? Given that the ad-supported Kindles include some lucrative deals — $10 for a $20 Amazon gift card, for instance — I’m sure there are some existing Kindle owners who’d like to opt in. And although Amazon has pooh-poohed the idea of ad-supported e-books, I still think it’s something customers would like.

One other open question: Now that Kindle with Special Offers has proven itself, how long until Barnes & Noble or Kobo try to figure out something similar?

 
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2 Comments For This Post

  1. The_Heraclitus Says:
    May 25th, 2011 at 8:49 am

    The new Nook is selling in store, for ~$125. Not enough difference to want ads.

  2. Max Says:
    May 26th, 2011 at 3:04 am

    I’m both amazed and saddened that the ad-supported version is popular, especially considering the small difference in price.

    I hope the popularity doesn’t cause amazon to make it the only option, or to artificially inflate the non ad-supported version of future kindle models. I’m sure they would love the idea of being able to push ads/offers to users.

    -Current gen kindle owner