It has been a tried and tested strategy at Amazon to sell the hardware at cost (or even less) and then make money through the content that users buy from the expansive ecosystem. It’s not surprising the company is keeping the same strategy for its latest devices, the Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle Fire HD.
“We want to make money when people use our devices, not when people buy our devices,” said company CEO Jeff Bezos, in an interview with the BBC.
What has been really encouraging for Amazon is that users tend to pick up on their reading habits once they are in possession of their Kindle. “What we find is that when people buy a Kindle they read four times as much as they did before they bought the Kindle,” revealed Bezos though he also added, “they don’t stop buying paper books. Kindle owners read four times as much, but they continue to buy both types of books.”
The online retailer is pushing subscriptions for its Prime services as well. For instance, the Lending Library function can be availed of for an annual subscription fee of £49. Of course, there are lots of other goodies thrown in for good measure, all aimed to suit the most diverse customer requirements as it opens up in more markets. Deliveries of the Kindle Paperwhite models are all set to kick off from 25 October in the US and UK.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
