Amazon adds 1 free book rental a month for Kindle users with Amazon Prime

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_357575542_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000739811&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gateway-center-column&pf_rd_r=0C2QDM83F877YDQVEEBK&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1328879142&pf_rd_i=507846

by onemoreact • 15 years ago

41 22 15 years ago

amazon.com

wattjustin• 15 years ago

Give us Canadians the chance to subscribe! But regardless, this is just another great reason to subscribe to Prime in my opinion.

kenjackson• 15 years ago

Amazon + great shipping logistics + cloud + huge retail + mobile devices + Bezos = ???

There are synergies here I'm fairly certain I don't understand -- I look forward to seeing what Amazon can do over the next 5-10 years.

ConstantineXVI• 15 years ago

Amazon's foray into mobile is "just" a natural extension of their retail business. The primary purpose of the Kindle and their variety of mobile apps/services is to get consumers to buy digital goods from Amazon; just as Amazon (the retail) is to get consumers to buy physical goods. The logistics plays a large role in keeping the physical goods flowing; AWS gives them a solid platform to keep the digital goods flowing.

jameshart• 15 years ago

But the interesting thing is, I think, how Amazon realised that building a superior delivery network for bits would be just as much of an advantage as having a superior delivery mechanism for atoms was. You buy a kindle from them. Amazon ship it to you. You turn it on, buy things, and the bits just arrive. And Amazon have that process down better than anybody, even Apple.

ippisl• 15 years ago

What will amazon do in the next 5-10 years?

Options:

1. wait to see if cloud based gaming catches on, and move on that market, maybe together with trying to control the TV.

2. online banking/insurance services(maybe?). uses cloud + trust + credit cards. Those are industries are on a verge of disruption to a much more efficient and automated model, need complex automation, and are consumer facing.

3. Control the e-book distribution market worldwide,

4, Get a larger part of the content creation ecosystem(movies, publishers, maybe music or educational content)

5. An online advertising move using the kindle fire silk browser and amazon browsing history. They would combine that with their general retail savvy to create highly effective service

6. Groupon like service - have a cut of every local commerce transaction. Again superior customer knowledge helps recommend offers, and they could find a way to advertise to small business owners in their site.

But their main goal is :

Sell move stuff , more groceries / CPG and more heavier stuff. They could do all this based on the success of prime and new logistics build for it.

jonstjohn• 15 years ago

I've been a prime user for the past year or so. Seemed a bit indulgent at first, but really love the service. Free 2-day shipping seems un-necessary when you can get super-shipper saving but every time my packages show up in two days, I'm grinning. I still have a Netflix account, but despite my love for Netflix it might only be a matter of time before I switch to Amazon Prime streaming (I don't watch a lot of TV). Now with this? Great deal.

jemfinch• 15 years ago

I originally signed up for Prime because it saved me money. Not because I was paying for a lot of fast shipping, but because I would frequently have a $10 item I wanted to purchase, and i would add $15-25 worth of stuff to get super saver shipping. With Prime I just buy what I want, when I want, and never worry about shipping costs or meeting a threshold for free shipping.

ErrantX2• 15 years ago

^^ This.

Prime initially increased my overall spend because it was so damned easy. Particularly as here in the UK I can order a book up to about 7pm and have it arrive next day. My record, I think, is ordering about 9pm and having it arrive at 9:30am :D

Amazon Prime was a genius idea.

tomkarlo• 15 years ago

Prime changes how you shop. I used to put things in my shopping cart, figuring I'd buy them later if I had something else I wanted and could drive the price over $25. Now I just buy it right away if I figure I need it - there's no hassle, no shipping fee, and I know that if it turns out I don't want/need it, it's trivially easy to return it and I won't be charged.

It also means Amazon is the first place I check for just about anything I buy online: over time I've found that it's highly unlikely that the difference in price (esp. with shipping) is going to be enough to cover the potential hassle of ordering somewhere else.

Prime is a huge win for Amazon. They take loyal customers, increase order volume and push the customers into ordering from a wider range of categories. More dollars from those customers end up going to Amazon, and the customers become less price sensitive as well.

pavel_lishin2• 15 years ago

I'm a little confused - so in any given month, I can only borrow a single book? Or, is it that for any given book, I can only borrow it once a month?

DasIch• 15 years ago

You can only borrow a single free book per month. If you want to borrow more you will probably have to pay.

pavel_lishin2• 15 years ago

In that case, it sounds like a nice bonus for Prime members, but I'm not going to pay $80/year just to get one free book for a month that I have to return later.

untog• 15 years ago

I'm not surprised that Amazon is pushing Prime heavily- once you've got people paying a regular subscription (especially one as low as $80 a year) they'll rarely stop paying it.

I'm close to signing up. I tried the month free trial and enjoyed the shipping, but barely used the on demand video because there wasn't that much recent stuff on there that I could actually rent for free. I imagine that Amazon is quite committed to changing that.

shazow• 15 years ago

Very true.

Not to mention that the inhibition to purchase drops significantly. Before activating Prime I knew there was an invisible $25 Super Saver free shipping barrier that I had to break before I would complete an order on Amazon. Now with Prime, I activated One-Click Buy and haven't looked back. It's addicting having a new package arrive at your door every day or two.

mrud• 15 years ago

Previous submission/discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3190307

atourgates• 15 years ago

Is there any way to get a list of the available books without looking on a Kindle device?

It's hard to evaluate just how valuable this will be without being able to browse the selection from a computer.

bbgm• 15 years ago

kindle.amazon.com lists all the books you've purchased, all the devices you have, etc once you log in.

twodayslate• 15 years ago

This is perfect for me. I don't read that much so one book a month is more than enough. Sold

RexRollman• 15 years ago

I love Amazon but let my Prime membership lapse after reading about the working conditions at Amazon's warehouses. I am not sure if I want to do business with them anymore.

Amazon adds 1 free book rental a month for Kindle users with Amazon Prime

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