The battle for control of the e-reader market continues with the announcement by Amazon that it will be offering a Kindle 3G with Special Offers, starting immediately. Amazon introduced its first Kindle with Special Offers last month, offering customers a lower priced Wi-Fi-only Kindle.
Those “special offers” include advertising and while some people (myself included) balked at the idea of ads in an e-reader, this cheaper version of the Kindle was wildly popular, quickly becoming the bestselling version in the Kindle family. So now Amazon is making a similarly discounted device available for the 3G version.
Just as the Wi-Fi version did, this “Special Offers” Kindle also knocks $25 off the price. That means it will cost $164, making it the lowest price 3G e-reader currently available.
The announcement by Amazon comes right on the heels of Barnes & Noble’s unveiling of its updated Nook yesterday.
But the timing of Amazon’s announcement isn’t just a matter of deflating the Nook’s media spotlight. According to the Amazon press release, this new Kindle 3G with Special Offers also has “up to two months of battery life” – an overnight jump from the one month of battery life previously boasted on the device and a figure that – how coincidentally – matches the battery life of the newly updated Nook.
Clearly consumers haven’t found the ad-supported Kindle to be as noxious as many originally surmised. So will this $25 discount on a 3G Kindle make it another bestseller for Amazon?
