Amazon selling remaining Kindle 2 stock for $89 on Black Friday

http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/amazon-selling-remaining-kindle-2-stock-for-89-on-black-friday-20101124/

by ukdm • 16 years ago

55 49 16 years ago

raganwald• 16 years ago

How long before eBook readers are entirely free, supported by subscriptions and/or sales of media? It seems like they are headed in the direction cell phones have already taken.

Alex39172• 16 years ago

It's interesting that some products make the most sense to subsidize when they are very expensive, and other products make the most sense to subsidize when they are almost free. It's not really clear to me that subscriptions & eReaders interact in such a way that they fall neatly into either category. For example, as eReaders approach free are you really going to want a separate crappy eReader for each subscription your have, or would you rather have a really nice eReader for all your subscriptions? And if it's the latter, which I think it clearly is, then does it really make sense to tie one subscription into the initial purchase? The only way it makes sense is if you make something that's like the iPad of eReaders, so that it is the expensive option in a sea of other cheaper options. So even though eReaders will be almost free in three years, it seems like it could be another 6 years before we have the technology to make a luxury version of an eInk product. So in short I guess I would expect some sort of subsidized version in the three years, but I don't see it being done really well for another 6.

njharman• 16 years ago

> which I think it clearly is, then does it really make sense to tie one subscription into the initial purchase?

Unless you're Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, etc. and want to be THE platform and have all subscriptions go through you and onto your awesome device. Apple's iOS AppStore is very successful example of this.

pierrefar• 16 years ago

The thing about mobile/cell phones is that they are subsidized only when there is a guaranteed subscription, namely the contract. If eBook readers can figure out a similar guarateed subscription, then yes. Otherwise, I don't see how they can be 100% subsidized.

Amazon may try to play a game of lifetime value of a Kindle owner and subsidize based on that. I'm hesitant to think that will work because if the price point drops to $0 to the consumer then Amazon will attract customers who will have lower lifetime value and thus end up costing Amazon the difference between their lifetime value and the cost of the Kindle.

acangiano• 16 years ago

Amazon could introduce a subscription service. You get the Kindle for free, have a monthly fee of $29 or $39, and you can download up to 10 titles per month. 1 year minimum contract.

DavidSJ• 16 years ago

Video game consoles are generally subsidized, yet their customers have no guaranteed video game subscription.

wmf• 16 years ago

Maybe they could have a package deal where for ~$100 you get ten ebooks and a "free" Kindle.

listic• 16 years ago

I'd rather prefer that we pay full price for the reader hardware, but be able to buy it anywhere in the world.

rbanffy• 16 years ago

As long as there is no lock-in, I would support it.

If, however, we end up having a bunch of different readers each one locked into its own walled garden, I'm out.

LaPingvino• 16 years ago

We have Calibre, Calibre can convert all your ebooks for different e-readers.

krschultz2• 16 years ago

Good deal, but I prefer the larger screen for textbooks/reference material which is where you get the most use out of the Kindle. Paperbacks I generally get at the library or used book stores for a buck, reference books I buy and keep.

varjag• 16 years ago

Kindle doesn't seem to be that well suited to references to me. It's not a kind of reader where you can quickly flip pages back and forth.

jonhendry3• 16 years ago

It's probably best as an additional copy of a reference work. Maybe read it straight through the first time on the kindle, but have a paper copy around for more typical reference use. You'd still have the kindle copy handy for things where you're mobile and need to dive in for a quick search.

krschultz2• 16 years ago

Interesting point, I was going on the fact that I keep a lot of mechanical engineering books for the tables in the back of various material properties, and having a kindle instead of a 6 testbooks would be physically so much smaller on my bookshelf, but for actual content the kindle might not be the best choice.

moskie• 16 years ago

Man, I just had my Kindle 2 stolen last month. (Well, I left it on a plane, but someone did take it and purchase stuff).

This is tempting.

miles2• 16 years ago

The Kindle 3 web browser (based on WebKit) is much more capable than the Kindle 2's, opening up all sorts of possibilities (like SSH access via shellinabox: http://tinyapps.org/blog/eink/201009300700_kindle_text_editi... )

derwiki• 16 years ago

Now I can ssh from my Kindle. miles++

tetsuo13• 16 years ago

Funny that the third and forth octets of the IP address shown in the Kindle screen shots are obstructed given that the IP begins with 192.168.

silentbicycle• 16 years ago

Yet another reason to learn ed: "Since the Kindle keyboard lacks Esc and Ctrl, stick with simple text editing tools like cat and ed/ex instead of nano and vi..."

davidw• 16 years ago

I like my Kindle a lot - I just got one - but the screen is really too slow to be anything other than maddening for any sort of remotely dynamic application.

It'll be really interesting to see what happens... I like the screen a lot more than LCD for reading, but I also would like to have a more generic device. I also suspect that not being able to hop online every 10 minutes is a good thing in the Kindle though, in terms of sitting down and really reading.

greendot• 16 years ago

I hope the DX will drop in price too.

Tichy• 16 years ago

I never had a kindle before, but this sounds like a rather bad deal. I mean, for how much could they sell the Kindle 2 now on a normal day?

jonhendry3• 16 years ago

It's not that bad, since the Kindle 2 doesn't have any compatibility limitations compared to the Kindle 3.

It's not like Amazon has moved to a format that is Kindle 3-only. The K2 can access all the same media, and ebooks released in 2011 won't strain the K2 CPU any more than ebooks released in 2009. It just has a somewhat lower-contrast screen and a little less storage (which is not a big problem given the small size of ebooks.)

ie, it's not like buying an original XBox after the release of the 360.

trickjarrett• 16 years ago

I'm still planning to get a Nook, mainly because it is more open to non-Amazon books. The ability to put my own ebooks on there is very inviting.

adulau• 16 years ago

You can put your own books on the Kindle (even the one downloaded from Library Genesis...).

blhack• 16 years ago

This seems like a pretty common misconception about the kindle. I've never come across a book I couldn't read on my kindle. Just give it plain text and it's happy.

hugh3• 16 years ago

Isn't there an issue with not being able to read .epub format though?

I have a nook which I use exclusively for reading out-of-copyright epubs. I can't complain about it.

Amazon selling remaining Kindle 2 stock for $89 on Black Friday

Related Stories