Amazon cheapens the Kindle, for a price

Want the new Kindle 3? Want it cheaper than what most people have paid? Amazon may have the answer with the new $114 Kindle 3. It’s $25 less than the Wi-Fi only version. The catch? You’ll have to deal with more advertising. This move was, admittedly, a bit unexpected. Impressions were that Amazon would lower the price of the Kindle 3 (both Wi-Fi and 3G-enabled versions) to eventually compete with the iPad. The idea sounded good: perhaps a price drop for the holiday season this year with preparations for a new Kindle 4? But that wasn’t the plan. It wasn’t even close. Instead, Amazon has tossed us a curveball with a new Kindle 3. It isn’t really different from the other current generation Kindles: it does have Wi-Fi access. But it is different in that it will be cheaper, but it will also be more, well, markety — advertising will be placed on the newer, cheaper Kindle 3 to likely make up for the cost difference. When the Kindle is shut down, an advertisement will appear on the screen, as opposed to those nice looking screen savers. When you are browsing the marketplace, advertisements will appear on the bottom, supposedly with special offers as well. And there will probably be a few other advertisements slid into places where they might not have been before. Either way, all you need to know is that the Kindle 3 with special offers will lean slightly more towards a marketing tool. The question on consumers’ minds should be whether this increased marketing will be worth the $25 price decrease. For some, it might be. That $25 could go toward the purchase of a few e-books while lowering the barrier to entry. For others, it might be too much of a distraction or annoyance, especially with all the marketing and advertising users are currently exposed to. Either way, users can hit up Amazon right now and have a look for themselves. Let us know if you plan on buying one or if increased advertising doesn’t intrigue you.