Kindle price drops to $299
Good news for Nancy and the other Kindle-ites: Amazon cut the e-reader's price to $299 on Wednesday.
The new price is $60 below the pricetag the Kindle has had since its 2007 debut. Spokeswoman Cinthia Portugal said the price cut is not just a short-term promotion. "We've been able to increase the volume of Kindles we're manufacturing and decrease the cost of doing so," she said, according to the Associated Press.
Amazon has not disclosed Kindle sales figures, and the publishing industry has said e-books account for less than 1 percent of book sales, the AP said. But it is a fast-growing segment. Amazon's larger Kindle DX, which is geared toward textbooks and periodicals, still has its original price of $489.
I think the price cut will make the Kindle2 attractive to more consumers. But until the price drops much more significantly -- to $99.99 or lower -- I don't think it will become a mass market item. It will still appeal mainly to (a) travelers who hate lugging suitcases full of books; (b) time-starved parents; (c) heavy, heavy readers; (d) library-phobes; and (e) those who are all of the above. So, what price would attract you?
While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, 
Comments
Dave, there's another category of readers who may do well with Kindles. People who have a problem focusing. There was a recent post (here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/tagging/tag/kindle/forum?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&ref%5F=cm%5Fcd%5Fef%5Ftft%5Ftp&cdThread=Tx3MZCN46R5YN1Y&displayType=tagsDetail) on an Amazon customer discussion forum about this. It was written by the mother ("Caledonia") of a 14-year-old who hated to read. It wasn't an eyesight problem; that had been checked out. When the mom bought a Kindle for herself, her daughter was intrigued. She was still having a problem reading on the Kindle, so the mom increased the size of the font, creating pages with fewer words. Her daughter liked that and asked her mother to download a specific book for her. After her daughter had been reading for hours, the mom wanted to know why the Kindle made a difference. Her daughter's answer was that "she would get very overwhelmed by all the words and the size of the book which would make it difficult for her to stay focused." A short page at a time on the Kindle didn't seem to intimidate her.
Interesting. Many of us would just love a huge book with packed pages. But for someone with focus problems? Well, not so much.
Posted by: Gail Farrelly | July 9, 2009 4:34 PM
Well, I'm okay with a semi-expensive eReader (up to $300) but how about cheaper e-books?
Posted by: Biblibio | July 9, 2009 6:28 PM
Gail, good point. And as you've noted on Read Street before, the Kindle's audio element makes it very useful for the sight-impaired.
Posted by: Dave | July 9, 2009 6:44 PM
Yes Dave, the Kindle's audio feature is important for the visually impaired. But it's also important for other groups. For example, dyslexic people who find it helpful to listen to the voice as they read. Or people who have a physical disability that makes it difficult or impossible to constantly push the page-turn button; they can turn on the audio feature (which also turns the pages automatically) and then just turn down the volume if they feel like reading and not listening. No manual page-turning required!
Biblibio, I'm totally with you on the need for cheaper ebooks. If you haven't already done so, you may want to check out these links:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-best-6-sites-to-get-free-ebooks/
http://www.freeebooksblog.com/
And for mystery fans, a free PDF copy of Robert Fate's "Beaumont Blues" is now available at http://www.robertfate.com/
Posted by: Gail Farrelly | July 9, 2009 7:53 PM