Like giving away the razor to sell more blades, Amy Gahran (@agahran) suggests that Amazon might be coming to a point where it makes more sense to offer the Kindle (@AmazonKindle) for free in order to sell more ebooks. She writes, “Last year, nearly $1 billion in ebooks were sold, according to Forrester. By 2015, this is expected to jump to $3 billion. That's an awful lot of money to be made selling ebooks. At that point, selling e-readers at any price might just become an obstacle to selling more ebooks. So why not just give away some e-readers for free?” She continues:
In a way, Amazon has already been giving away Kindles for awhile -- in the form of the free Kindle smartphone, tablet, and computer apps. Right now, about 6 million US adults own e-readers -- but this field is getting much more crowded.
According to recent research from Changewave, Kindle currently holds 47% of the e-reader market. Apple's iPad (which is much more than an e-reader, so I'm not sure that's a fair comparison) holds only 32% of this market. Sony's Reader, at 5%, is just barely leading the Barnes & Noble Nook, at 4%....
The Kindle's core business model has always been to sell books, not devices. So a free Kindle seems like a potentially savvy business move.
Amy goes on to offer ways Amazon could maintain its market lead through creative initiatives, such as:
- Buy X number of Kindle books, get a Kindle free
- Free Kindles for Amazon Prime members
- Partner Kindle giveaways
How do you think publishers, content creators, and booksellers should prepare for the day the price of e-readers becomes negligible?