I find this ridiculous. This morning's bit of news for readers holds the teaser that Amazon is slated to begin marketing a reduced-price ereader that supports ads on its screen-saver.
Will people pay to have ads on a personal device?
...to save a paltry $25?
That's less than 20% savings and it means that the face of the owners' new ereaders would constantly have two ads staring out at them.
Seriously?
I would pay NOT to have to see advertising.
My NOOK ereader, while only displaying black and white, is able to display my photos. It can hold up to 1,600 books. There is no way I am going to reach capacity on it for a good, long while. I've used the extra space to add photos of all of my family members and close friends. Each time I pick my NOOK up to read I have a different happy memory to look at. I love that. My kids love that. My five year old was turning it off and on yesterday as we waited at the ATT store. She found, on her own, that if she turned it on and then off a new photo would cycle to the screen. I loved watching her.
So far Barnes and Noble has told the media that they will not follow in the footsteps of Amazon.
"A year ago, I asked Barnes & Noble's management if they planned to sell ads and they said said they didn't want to do anything that would disrupt the reading process," Wahlstrom said. "If readers are distracted by the ads, it won't do anyone any good."
I realize that purchasers are free to make their own decisions. It is my hope that this falls flat though. Advertising in America is getting out of hand and the American public can embrace more advertising or shut their doors to it. Again, I would be willing to pay NOT to see ads.
My 10 year old son and I both desperately want to purchase our own NOOK COLORs. Truly the price isn't bad for the amount of technology. When you double the cost and the cost of the accessories and then add in some money for some books...well, it begins to look like a pretty good chunk of change. We figure we need about $600 for the two of us to have our wishes fulfilled. We're saving our money. Yes. We are patiently (or not) saving our money. My little guy has even had the idea that if we pool our resources we could buy one once we have half the money saved. While we think we both want a NOOK COLOR, saving our money and waiting is also allowing for the market to change over time. Prices may continue to drop. We might decide to save even more money and buy a tablet that would function as an ereader as well as many other things. Time will tell. I would not, however, be tempted by any kind of price drop if it meant I'd have to stare at ads.
As I continue to read articles about this I am finding that this product is going to come with special coupons aimed only at the owners of this ad-sponsoring Kindle. Some will be for deals on ebooks, others might be for Amazon gift cards. You know what? I still say an unequivocal "No." I see my ereader as a personal product; something that conveys a part of me.
When I visited Barnes and Noble's forums this morning I read this particularly scathing post in reply to whether people think ad-supported ereaders are a good idea:
"Wow, a whole $25 dollars to have an inferior Kindle AND ads....its like Christmas and my birthday all wrapped up together!"
Here are some articles about this latest ad gimmick:
click here> OnlineJournal
click here>ReadWriteWeb
And here is the Amazon page where the product is being sold for pre-order:
click here> AmazonKindleWithAds
