Marco Arment on the new Kindles
marco.org
marco.org
If you buy an ad-supported kindle, you'll see ads every time you put it to sleep. If you click an affiliate link (vs a standard link to the product), there is no difference in content at all.
It impacts the time scale. If I click on one of his links and buy a gadget, I get the very same thing. He gets a one time bonus that _I_ didn't pay and the experience is the same (granted, if I want to buy the thing in 3 weeks I'm going to Amazon's site and search/buy it there, not looking up his links to do him a favor).
The ads on the device, however, are semi-permanent and are going to stay with you. You trade _your_ money for things that are shoved in _your_ face.
I don't even understand where a comparison between these things (affiliate links vs. ads on the device) are meaningful..
Is there a version of marco.org "with self-respect"? Do I need to block his ads to get that?
Amazon offers 2 price points, emphasizes the ad-driven one, and somewhat obscures the fact that it's ad-driven. I don't see how that relates to the free (and Creative Commons free content of) marco.org, and the fact that he syndicates ads from a network he trusts there.
1) The special offers Kindle's will become their best selling models. The offers are totally not distracting. And maybe more importantly, the offers seem to actually be quite good. Even if they special offers and non-special offers were both priced the same, I might be inclined to get the special offers Kindle.
2) There's clearly a tablet market. The iPad though is just so far better than the rest that it's a non-starter to look at anything else. Will the Kindle Fire be the first tablet that threatens it? Maybe. Depends on three things: 1) Quality of web browser. 2) Quality of email app. 3) General responsiveness. If it can nail those three then I think we can see a holiday season where Kindle Fires sell like crazy to the detriment of iPads.
I could see people saying, "I'd love an iPad, but I'd still be stoked to get a Kindle Fire." Given the $300 price delta, a lot of people may be getting the Kindle Fire.
That could be a clever ad line for the Fire (if, you know, enough people knew the actual definition of "stoked").
"Dude, you're on Fire!"
When I put the cover on my Kindle, I thought to myself, "Ha! They paid me to see their ads, and yet with the cover I'll never see them!"
And yet: I do see them, every time I open the cover. And they linger for a couple seconds as it turns on. (I could avoid them with a bit more discipline – power-on then open cover – but that's a little less natural.)
They haven't been very impressive ads – perhaps because I've only been occasionally wireless-active for updates. (The ads I most remember are for some TV primetime soap premiere I'd be unlikely to ever watch, and AT&T, a company who I'm already a customer of but despise.)
But they also haven't been very annoying. Very easy to ignore, not adding any noticeably delay to my use, not distracting from usual use at all. So I actually think they have potential. They haven't made me feel, per Arment's labeling, 'uncivilized' or 'without self-respect'.