The traditional writing industry has lost ground to e-readers, tablets and other mobile devices, and Amazon is sitting quite with its Kindle platform. Once the $114 Kindle with Special Offers ships May 3, Amazon should improve its 60 percent share in the e-reader market. Yet there’s a catch – those Special Offers are advertisements, a move that has several worried about the shape of the reading experience to come.
Paying $25 less for an ad-based kindle
The price of the Amazon Kindle has fallen a few times since the first generation was introduced at $399 in 2007. This is the first time, however, that a price reduction will consist of the placement of advertisements on the popular e-reader, a move geared to capture ground from the iPad in the e-reader market. May 3 is when the kindle will start with Special Offers. The ad-supported version could be found in Best Purchase and Target for the Kindle 3.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos sees the $114 Kindle with Special Offers as a “chicken in every pot” move:
“We’re working hard to make sure that anyone who wants a Kindle can afford one,” he said via a statement.
Reader response to a Christian Science Monitor article about the price cut seems to echo the fears most customers have about an advertisement-based Kindle. One reader argues for a free advertisement-based Kindle with $0.99 books, however that reflects another thorny issue regarding the price of electronic books. The $25 discount isn’t enough, according to some readers. Most experts’ say it is okay though since the ads only come up on the bottom of the home screen and on the screen saver.
“It’s very important that we didn’t interfere with the reading experience,” Kindle director Jay Marine told the Associated Press.
The price is needed
Getting to the $99 Kindle for Christmas 2011 is important, TechCrunch believes. That is what the $114 Amazon Kindle is leading up to with its Special Features. Traditional marketing psychology suggests the “.99″ price point is a magic number.
However, new research from New York’s Columbia Business School indicates the advantage is more imagined than it is real anymore. The “dollar-minus” approach (down to 99 cents, for instance) was actually less effective than “dollar-plus” price points (like $4.01), according to the Columbia study. Sales of goods that used the dollar-plus method increased by 3 percent, and customers felt greater trust for dollar-plus brands because the prices were perceived as being less manipulative.
Information from
Christian Science Monitor
csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0413/Will-readers-accept-ads-in-exchange-for-a-cheaper-Kindle
Columbia Business School
gsb.columbia.edu/ideasatwork/researchbriefs/7314376?&top.region=main
Knowing and Making
knowingandmaking.com/2011/04/new-research-99-no-longer-optimal-for.html
TechCrunch
techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/amazon-kindle-99/
Kindle sales tripled after last price drop
youtu.be/PaAFm_fZQ2A
No comments:
Post a Comment