Amazon.com Inc. is dropping the price on its Kindle e-reader, but the change comes with a trade-off: On-screen ads.
The online retailer was set to announce Tuesday that the new Kindle with Special Offers will cost $114–$25 less than the currently lowest-priced Kindle–and include advertisements on the bottom of the device’s home page and on its screen savers. Seattle-based Amazon will start shipping the newest Kindle on May 3, and it will also be sold in Target and Best Buy stores on that date.
Amazon has consistently lowered the price of the Kindle since it released the first version of the device at $399 in 2007, though this is the first time it is doing so while including ads on the e-reader.
Kindle director Jay Marine said in an interview Tuesday that the release of a cheaper, ad-studded Kindle is Amazon’s way of getting the device into the hands of more people. But it also shows Amazon is getting more aggressive in its efforts to lure consumers tempted by competing e-readers and bombarded by ads for Apple Inc.’s latest iPad and a growing number of competing tablet computers.
Some potential buyers may be turned off by the idea of having ads on an e-reader, but Marine thinks that serving up a number of money-saving offers will be appealing.
“We think customers are going to love it,” he said.
The advertisers sponsoring screen savers at launch will be General Motors Co.’s Buick car brand, Procter & Gamble Co.’s Olay cosmetics brand and payments processor Visa Inc. JPMorgan Chase & Co. will advertise the Amazon.com Reward Visa Card.
And other than the addition of ads, the latest Kindle is identical to the current one that uses Wi-Fi to wirelessly download books (a more expensive model uses 3G for wireless content delivery). It has a grayscale “electronic ink” screen that measures 6 inches at the diagonal, a battery that lasts for three weeks with Wi-Fi on, and enough space to store 3,500 books.
In a demo of the device, a screen saver showed a deal where customers would pay $10 for a $20 gift card to Amazon. If a user is interested in that deal, they can click to have details of the offer e-mailed to them. A much smaller ad shown across the bottom of the Kindle’s home screen–the screen that shows you the content stored on the e-reader–was less obtrusive, but still clearly an advertisement. The ads will change frequently, Marine said, and there will not be any ads in Kindle books.
“It was very important that we didn’t interfere with the reading experience,” he said.
Users will be able to log on to their Kindle account on Amazon.com and adjust preferences about the types of screen savers they’d like to see.
Amazon has never revealed how many Kindles it has sold.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More