Amazon Kindle has had its detractors over the past year. Many call the device “overrated” and overpriced. The fact is that while Amazon Kindle is a wonderful device, people are hesitant about parting ways with $350 of their hard-earned money for an ebook reader.

Here is the solution that Amazon may introduce with Kindle 2.0: Internet subscriptions. In essence, you get the device with a heavy discount. Let’s say Amazon gives out the Kindle for $50 (to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave it out for free). Then, they ask you to sign up for their wireless plans. They can have lifetime wireless plans or they can offer plans with low monthly fees to pay for the cost of the device.

I believe that a lot of people are more comfortable with paying $25 a month for 12 months rather than paying $300 up front. So these monthly subscriptions would make the device more affordable to more people.

At this point, I would be surprised if Amazon Kindle 2.0 did not come with a subscription fee. Kindle has been amazing and has its fans. But for Amazon to be able to justify the risk it has taken with the Kindle, it need to sell many more Kindles. One way to do that is to lower the prices (or give that impression), and charging monthly fees would be one way to go.

Would you buy a Kindle with a subscription fee instead of an one-time upfront fee?

3 Comments »

July 8th, 2008 A Reader Says:

I would buy a kindle with a subscription fee, but the subscription fee should for the content - $25 or $50 per month for all-you-can-read would be reasonable. Or they could do it like netflix - $10/month for 1 book at a time, $15 for 2, etc. The wireless should be separate - they should either keep giving it away for free, or charge an optional separate subscription fee for wireless so that if you want wireless, you can pay for it, if you don’t, you can save money and download everything through USB for free. $350 is definitely too high of an initial investment for most people. At that price, I am sticking to the library.

July 8th, 2008 Rick Says:

They shouldn’t charge anything for wireless access to the Kindle Store or for wireless delivery of books…that is highway robbery and people will say it’s not worth it…understandable that they will charge for web access, but shopping on the device, NOWNOW and maybe even wikipedia are features that make the Kindle so much better than other ereaders…

July 10th, 2008 P. Rad Says:

Something like Rhapsody Music access for books would be really interesting. I think Safari does that right now, but doing it for Kindle would probably help the cause. Rick, if you get the Kindle for free, would you mind paying for the subscription? I would mind if I paid $400 for the device and there was a monthly fee but for a free Kindle, I wouldn’t.

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