Amazon selling Kindle ‘special offers’ with ads for $114

Amazon have dropped the price of the WiFi Kindle by $25 more dollars by offering a version which includes advertising.

This new Edition is dubbed the ‘Kindle with Special Offers‘ has two differentiating functions. It can use Amazon to deliver special offers to you, and it pops up ads as screensavers, in place of the current author drawings.

Example of offers so far include:

• $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
• $6 for 6 Audible Books (normally $68)
• $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 Store (choose from over 1 million albums)
• $10 for $30 of products in the Amazon Denim Shop or Amazon Swim Shop

A full list of current offers will be accessible from the new Kindle's main menu and the company say that while the first wave of deals are for their own store, that there will be deals outside Amazon presented in the coming months, once other partners join the advertising scheme.

While it sounds like a hideous system, Kindle owners are already Amazon customers with an account, so it might not annoy them that much, especially if they are saving some money on the cost of the device. There is still no UK version of this advertising enabled version, but we suspect it won't be long before UK buyers can save some money for the advertising equipped version.

Launch partners in America include Olay, Visa, Buick and Chase. Many people are complaining that the reduction is so small however, after all there is potential to offer the Kindle with advertising for much less as people buying one are already dedicated Kindle customers who will be buying books, so it opens advertising up to a whole new demographic. Perhaps down the line it might be possible to give the Kindle away for almost nothing, knowing that customers will be buying books and other products, from their new shiny toy.

Will this idea eventually take off? Will Apple offer an iPad at a later date with reduced pricing complete with advertisements?

KitGuru says: Are you interested in a very cheap version of the Kindle with ads? Is the price of this version tempting or not?

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