The winner of the GeekDad/Target giveaway of Amazon’s Kindle with Special Offers, supplied by Target, as Ambushbug1103! Congratulations!
I asked in the original post about whether it would be worth the price savings to buy the $114 Kindle with Special Offers or go up to the same device, advertising free, for $139. (Though some of you did prefer the 3G version at $189.)
I expected the responses would be overwhelmingly negative about the ads but, instead, I would estimate about one half were open to the idea of saving money buying the version with the ads. Money is very, very tight in my house–we have a daughter starting college–so I would pick that version myself. I’d be very interested in Amazon’s and Target’s sales figures on this model over time.
But, like many of you stated,, I am also a little concerned about the precedent set with the advertising. This is a relatively inoffensive start. Where would it end? Would you buy a book for half-price if there was an ad in the middle of the chapters? That might not be so far-fetched, particularly for comic books or graphic novels that have always had ad inserts.
In short, I like saving money and can tolerate a decent amount of advertising to do so. But when it crosses a certain point, I would much prefer to pay extra than put up with the advertising.
