This can prove to be a show stopper. I own one with offers. But I know few people who are very "religious" about their gadgets - they can pay more but having random ads/pictures (AT&T, new books ads by Amazon itself..) displayed on their devices is something they cannot tolerate.
I have recently been considering buying a tablet. I heard nothing positive about the original Fire, but I intended to give the new one a look. I am a fan of my Kindle 3. Although a total bust as a lightweight alternative to textbooks (as the formatting was generally poor and the greyscale diagrams worthless), it allows me to read outdoors in direct sunlight, which something I do quite a bit. The forced advertising, however, has convinced me to skip the new Fire entirely.
I realize that I personally am a marginal corner case for any large manufacturer, but I am failing to grasp the logic of not providing a paid opt-out. People who don't care will buy the cheaper device, people with strong feelings in the negative will pay extra to avoid the ads, and some number of people will buy it thinking they will opt out later and never bother to do so. In any case Amazon would have hard numbers on the eyeballs they have for sale. I think those numbers would be greater with paid opt-outs than without those who now will not even consider the device.
I've been buying Amazon ebooks for the Kindle. I like the Kindle 3 keyboard without special offers well enough, but I don't really like the "we want to make money when you use the device" angle. Making money when I'm buying content is okay, but this Kindle will have to be replaced eventually, and then my entire ebook collection is retroactively adified.
Very irritating. I suppose I'll have to rip the DRM off of them and use them with another device if every eInk kindle has mandatory ads in the future.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 21.5 ms ] threadI realize that I personally am a marginal corner case for any large manufacturer, but I am failing to grasp the logic of not providing a paid opt-out. People who don't care will buy the cheaper device, people with strong feelings in the negative will pay extra to avoid the ads, and some number of people will buy it thinking they will opt out later and never bother to do so. In any case Amazon would have hard numbers on the eyeballs they have for sale. I think those numbers would be greater with paid opt-outs than without those who now will not even consider the device.
Very irritating. I suppose I'll have to rip the DRM off of them and use them with another device if every eInk kindle has mandatory ads in the future.