Amazon has widened the price gap between its Kindle e-reader and the iPad even further by subsidizing the entry-level model with advertising, dubbing it Kindle with Special Offers.
When you buy Kindle with Special Offers, you are getting the same bestselling Kindle for $25 less—only $114. Special offers and sponsored screensavers display on the Kindle screensaver and on the bottom of the home screen—they don’t interrupt reading.
Amazon certainly has an interesting idea though. They are effectively selling an Amazon ‘shopping tablet’ with offers such as $1 MP3 albums or 6 Audible books for $6. So you’re just a click away from the world’s largest store should the urge to shop arise during Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This just demonstrates how the tablet market is heating up, with everyone jumping in.
What do you think? How about a subsidized iPad with 3G? Will we ever see that business model from US wireless carriers?
[via Los Angeles Times]
