Special Offers Kindle could be Amazon's Groupon competitor
Summary: So far the offers have served me well
I previously mentioned that I had placed an order for the Special Offers Kindle. I have now been playing with it on and off for a week and have to say that it's a solid experience.
If you're not familiar with the Special Offers Kindle, Amazon released a cheaper Kindle that offers the same user experience, with the addition of advertising. Thankfully, the advertising doesn't get in the way of the experience, too much, and in some cases I've actually welcomed it. For example, you can read a book that you downloaded without having to see any advertising, but when you go into the menu, you see a small advertisement on the bottom of the page (see below). You are also treated to ads when you put the Kindle in standby, and you can jump to all available ads and "special offers" by accessing a new page thru the menu system.
The "special offers" page is actually the one that I welcome. As you can see from the picture below, the first offer was a $20 Amazon gift card for $10. I, of course, clicked to take advantage of that one. I have since been treated to an offer for an album on the Amazon MP3 store for just $1.
What has surprised me so far, though, is the lack of targeted ads. I would have expected Amazon to deliver relevant ads to me, based on the fact that I'm a prime member and based on my purchasing habits. I know that they possess the ability to deliver targeted advertising so perhaps they're holding off to avoid any fallout that may come from it at this stage of release.
So far I'm a big fan of the Special Offers Kindle. I initially was hoping for an even cheaper strike price, but with the special offers actually delivering value, I think it has already almost paid for itself.
As for the Groupon reference in the title of this article, I think that if Amazon truly taps into what it knows about its customer and delivers targeted ads and "impulse buy" type ads, the Special Offers Kindle and all Kindles, for that matter, will be an amazing new conduit for Amazon to offer up Groupon-like deals to its customers.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
RE: Special Offers Kindle could be Amazon's Groupon competitor
Prepared to pay?
Edit: And last, but not least, THIS SITE, which you use, and do not pay for.
RE: Special Offers Kindle could be Amazon's Groupon competitor
I will give you ....
that ideally, you should have a choice. Pay for your access/services and face no advertising at all, or cheap/free services with advertising. How practical and cost effective that would be is another question however.
My main point was however (and which I believe you agree with) was that we get a lot more in exchange for the ads than most of us seem to realize. I probably do not like the ads any more than you do, but I recognize how the system works. This is one reason I am not too hard on Google. As I have said before, they have yet to ask me for a dime, and still they let me search and use their mail system as much as I want to. They have to pay their bills somehow, and "spying" and advertising is how they do it. We cannot have it both ways.
RE: Special Offers Kindle could be Amazon's Groupon competitor
However, I think that the real reason behind it is that this model Kindle is on the way out and Amazon is trying to get rid of the inventory. This is further supported by all the Mother's Day deals where you could buy a regular Wi-Fi or 3G Kindle and get a $25 gift card.