Everything iPad

Not that anyone should have thought the eBook war would calm down this quickly, or probably any time soon; but we just wanted to make it clear that Amazon doesn’t plan on giving up. And if trying to make publishers happy with more money isn’t going to work, or trying to keep consumers from paying too much for their digital content isn’t working out, it looks like they only have one other route to take: make the Kindle free.

Back in January (like it was a really long time ago, or something), Amazon went out on a limb with a very, very different approach for getting people to try their eReader. They allowed people to purchase a Kindle, and if they weren’t satisfied with the device, Amazon issued them a full refund. But they got to keep the Kindle. While that’s all well and good, Amazon is looking at a different model, aimed specifically at their Prime customers. These individuals pay $79.99 a year, and it offers free 2-day shipping on all purchases, and $3.99 for overnight.

If Amazon is able to get the manufacturing cost of the Kindle (and Kindle DX) down, then something of this nature isn’t too far off base. The Prime customers are the customers who usually buy more on Amazon, and providing them with a free eReader (arguably the best one on the market, currently) might provoke them to start buying more digital books. Of course, that would be a heavy task for Amazon, to finally get the manufacturing cost of the eReader down, but anything is possible in this day and age. Is this the best strategy from Amazon? That’s debatable, we imagine. But we’re willing to bet there’s more people interested in the iPad, than there are Prime customers. But, then again, anything is possible in this day and age. Right?

[via Apple Insider]