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Matthew Miller & Joel Evans
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Amazon drops Kindle price to $189, down from $259

By | June 21, 2010, 2:44pm PDT

Summary: eReader prices continue to fall. Now the big guys are cheap enough to keep out most of the competition.

Earlier today we saw the official announcement of the WiFi only Nook and the price drop of the existing Nook to $199. Now Amazon is announcing that its own Kindle is dropping, too. This drop is a bit more substantial, down from $259 to $189. Amazon isn’t saying what sparked the price drop, but we can only assume it has to do with increased competition, especially the Nook’s latest moves.

I have to say that at $189 for the Kindle and $199 for the Nook, there’s really no reason to look at competitors right now. The closest competitor in the space is probably the new WiFi Nook for $149, but that still keeps it in the B&N family.

The biggest barrier to entry is still consumer adoption. Do consumers feel a need to buy into the eBook concept? For $149 for the hardware and a solid eBook store, the barrier just became a lot easier to overcome.

Matthew’s opinion: I just wanted to chime in with my 2 cents regarding these two devices that are now extremely well priced. I dropped my Kindle for the Nook for a couple of reasons that I think make the Nook more compelling than the Kindle and wanted to share these with you all. The $199 Nook gives you both 3G and WiFi connectivity, allows you to side load EPUB books purchased from other online stores (Kobo, Fictionwise, Sony Store, etc.) via Adobe Digital Editions, allows you to check out public library books for free and load them with ADE, gives you lots of free content and special offers in physical Barnes & Noble stores, and has a better contrast eInk display for the BEST eInk reading experience.

I rarely use the 3G connectivity myself and think the WiFi Nook is the way to go for most people who want to read ebooks on a dedicated reader and Kobo may have to think about dropping the price for their device with no wireless connectivity to compete with this offering.

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Topics

Price Drop, Amazon.com Inc., E-book, Wireless LANs, E-books & E-Readers, Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility, Personal Technology, Joel Evans

With more than a decade of mobile, Internet and wireless experience, Joel specializes in taking existing brands and technologies into the mobile and wireless space.

Disclosure

Joel Evans

Joel is a serial entrepreneur with his most recent business, CronkSoftware (cronksoftware.com), focusing on consulting and building games and applications for mobile devices. Joel has consulted for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile division and advises other companies on how to incorporate mobile into their existing brands and products. Joel purchases many of his devices and others are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the supplier. If any devices are provided as “keeper” Joel will clearly disclose this in his reviews.

Biography

Joel Evans

With more than a decade of mobile, Internet and wireless experience, Joel specializes in taking existing brands, technologies and services into the mobile and wireless space. Joel is currently serving as the Managing Director of Cronk Software, Inc., a company he founded to offer full-service, end-to-end mobile strategy, design and development services.

Joel is the former founder and "Chief Geek" of Geek.com, a website praised by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and others as one of world's best sources of information for technology professionals and enthusiasts.

Joel also serves as a technology expert for a number of well-known publications and regularly advises corporations, analysts, journalists and bloggers on what the future of technology will bring. He brings decades of relationships with leading game publishers, online communities and publishers, along with both hardware and software product management and delivery expertise. Joel can be found online as "JoelGeek" and you can follow him on Twitter @JoelGeek.

Talkback Most Recent of 12 Talkback(s)

  • RE: Amazon drops Kindle price to $189, down from $259
    It's definitely more tempting to get a Kindle now with the price drop but I plan on doing some serious research on them all... so far I'm liking the price of the wifi Nook reader.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Pete "athynz" Athens
    21st Jun 2010
  • RE: Amazon drops Kindle price to $189, down from $259
    Kindle value proposition getting competitively squeezed by iPad from the top and Nook from the bottom.Amazon which was riding high with the success of its e-Book Reader Kindle less than a year ago is now fighting to save its blockbuster product from irrelevance http://bit.ly/ddZLxX
    ZDNet Gravatar
    AGreenInvestor
    22nd Jun 2010
  • RE: Amazon drops Kindle price to $189, down from $259
    I'm sure one of the reasons for the price drop had to do with the newer thinner Kindle to be released in August. There most always seems to be a price drop of this sort on the older existing model to thin out inventories and make room for the newer model. I bet the new Kindle is priced right around $259 or close to it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    pushwall
    22nd Jun 2010
  • Low-balling the eBook Reader market
    Yes, you say "keep out the competition". Make that "drive out the competition. Several are gone already. Is this good?

    Most innovation and real changes in any industry come from the new and small/medium players. Also, this competition keeps the prices down. Amazon and B&N are selling for far under their cost to manufacture. That is illegal and it is low-balling. With no competition, these two giants can set any price they want. Do you really think they are doing this to help the end users?
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    23rd Jun 2010
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