Amazon is reportedly trying to figure out how it can give away its Kindle e-reader without losing gobs of money in the process.
The plan would require a subscription to Amazon Prime, TechCrunch reports, but details beyond that are unknown. Amazon Prime is a membership program that provides free two-day shipping and cheap one-day shipping without a minimum purchase per order. It currently costs $79 per year.
With the Kindle currently priced at $259, there's no way that getting a free Kindle would be as simple as signing up for Amazon prime. As it stands, each membership would have to last more than three years to recoup the Kindle's retail price, and that doesn't count all the money Amazon would spend providing free shipping for other products in the process. Amazon could try and lock people into four or five years of Amazon Prime, but that seems like a stretch.
A more likely scenario could require some sort of mandatory amount of book purchases. It's funny, one commenter on TechCrunch joked about how "once every few weeks your top recommended book will be automatically Kindled to your device, you then have 48 hours to either delete it or keep it and pay the low low Kindle Club price" -- a throwback to the CD clubs that automatically sent you music every month unless you specifically opted out, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw something similar. Imagine if the free Kindle required you to purchase monthly credits towards the Kindle store, and it's your obligation to use them before they expire.
Giving away the Kindle isn't a bad idea. With Amazon losing its e-book price advantage against Apple's upcoming iPad, it makes sense to create a compelling reason for bookworms to get a Kindle instead of a multi-function device.
