Amazon Kindle and Advertising - AT&T ShopAlerts Shows Me the Money

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors”

Robert Frost, Mending Wall

Reading and advertising appear to be becoming very good neighbours.

At least that is what the news is saying coming out of the US of A. Yes, Amazon had made what I think is probably the FIRST decision that, albeit not a game changer, is a tip of the hat to the power of Advertising as it relates to pricing of goods, services and electronic gadgets.

Amazon has decided to reduce the price of their Amazon Kindle, the e-ink E-book reader to US$114, down from a price of US$139 as stated in the article “Kindle e-reader cheaper with on-screen ads”, published Monday April 11, 2011 6:51 pm ET, AFP, Yahoo News by offering what the term as Special Offers on the Amazon Kindle.

Associated Press and CNET News bring in the backup with supporting articles apparently cribbed from each other as stated in the article “Amazon to sell cheaper Kindle with on-screen ads”, published Monday April 11, 20114:57 pm ET by RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo News and the article “Amazon intros new US$114 ad-supported Kindle with Special Offers”, published April 11, 2011 3:12 PM PDT by David Carnoy, Crave - CNET News.

In effect, they are subsidizing the Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) to the tune of US$25 by using advertising!

If you are not bowled over or even phased by that, then consider the fact that the other Internet capable Third Generation Amazon Kindle 3G is priced at US$189.

US$25 off the price for a Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) that can make you cool while sipping you Latte and posing with your Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) is a steal that can earn you some yuppie Street creds. Hopefully I transcribed this American slang right.

For now it’s just banner ads and wallpaper ads that are activated while the e-reader drifts off in the land of Morpheus, which one can opt to click on or ignore via going to Home. Soon it may be in-book contextual ads with offers of free books.

Maybe later versions of the Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) may be coming with colour, adding a whole new dimension to e-ink display for advertising. Tablet-like features are also a possibility for this conservative e-book reader.

Before you know it, even the Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) itself may one day be free, completely subsidized by advertising. The cost of the Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) as well as the book may be fully paid for by advertisers desperate to get you to look at their ads on what is currently a fast growing market segment: e-book readers and Tablets.

This also serves as a great way to combat piracy as chronicled in my Geezam Blog entitled “Piracy and E-books in a Tale of Two Cities” as by making the titles ad-subsidized, the reason to steal books diminishes.

Eventually textbooks to students at Universities, even local Jamaican Big Three (3) Universities such as the University of the West Indies, University of Technology  and the Northern Caribbean University may be free, along with the Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), a suggestion I had tendered in my blog article entitled “How UWI can save money in a Recession”.

How’s that UWI students? A “free” Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n)!!

Most likely the sponsors ads, that being notables such as US car maker Buick, credit card company Visa, and Proctor & Gamble beauty products line Olay, are shown on the basis of contextual information gained from the type of books or magazines that the reader reads.

Even your Facebook “likes” may be used to deliver the Behavioral Targeted Marketing as I had opined in my blog article entitled “Brown Dawg and Se'et Deh - Behavioral Targeted Marketing Ads”.

If this sounds familiar to you, it should; this is the same thing as the Geo-location advertising platform by Telecom Provider AT&T called Shop Alerts launched on February 28^th 2011 as explained in my bog article on the subject entitled “AT&T and Shop Alerts - Confessions of a Geo-Location Shopaholic” with my other article on the Geezam Blog entitled “AT&T ShopAlerts and BB for Everyone”.

Except here, the advertising revenue is used to make the UE (User Equipment) cheaper for the customer (Telecom Provider AT&T would never do that!!), a FIRST for any Gadget as I have said prior.

Which would explain the Media Interest evident by the plethora of news links from CNET News, and Yahoo News cribs from Associated Press.

My above mentioned blog articles even hinted at Blackberrys being also similarly subsidized to the level of a Nokia 1208 “feature”-less phone Go-Go phones, an apt description coined by my girlfriend past, Audia Granston.

Another of my blog article on the subject entitled “RIM, Telecom Providers and the rise of Mobile Commerce - Free Will Blackberry” made exactly that suggestion, coupling Geo-location based Advertising Platform Telecom Provider AT&T ShopAlerts with Local Business to create a Mobile Social Network called Brown Dawg to deliver advertising and thereby subsidize the BB to the price bracket of a Nokia 1208.

Now I know that this may seem strange to some people that I would even stoop to the level of a gadget as a newsworthy article, but bear with me on this one, as this has implication beyond CNET News Reporter David Carnoy’s simple analysis, which my ditty shall expand upon.

This is an example of an Ad-supported Discount on a Gadget, a very rare bird in the greedy Silicon Valley Technology scene who usually tries to up-sell technology to customers and techies alike on the basis of being the “latest Technology”.

So even if you had read about the US$114 Amazon Kindle in the news, my article is worth another gander, as it has wider implications not only for books, but for the ultimate future of the now dominant smartphone Ecosystem, Android as stated in my blog article entitled “RIM Decline and Android Ascendancy - No Country for Old Men”.

Mountain View, California-based Google, literally, if they wanted, could give pricey Apple Inc a “hotfoot” [American colloquial] by subsidizing the Android smartphone with Google ads to literally free.

Thus rumours of a cheaper Apple iPhone 5 based on MobileMe Cloud to debut at Apple’s WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) to be held in the week of June 6^th 2011 to June 10^th 2011 may be a real possibility as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple and the WWDC in June 2011 - Space Above and Beyond”

Looks like subsidizing the cost of the gadgets you Crave, CNET News style via advertising among Silicon Valley Tech Heavyweights may become the next weapon of choice this Summer of 2011 in the competitive world of Consumer Electronics. Provided that you could tolerate pop-up ads on your smartphone of course!

But what would be even nicer than an advertising subsidize gadget? What about a Proximity Geo-Location Augmented Reality Photo Sharing Social Network (what a mouthful!!) as chronicled in my blog article entitled “Color Social Network & Valpak Virtual Coupons - Augmented View's True Colors” that pays you money just to take pictures and place geo-location based advertisements. Just Show me the money Jerry Maguire (1996) Style

Coming soon…………. On Geezam.com