In a smart and most likely controversial move, Amazon has just announced the ability to purchase ad space on their popular Kindle Fire tablets. For $600,000, your ad will be displayed on the boot-up screen of every Kindle Fire for 2 full months. This business model could prove to be a great way to offer high-end tablets at a much lower price given the manufacturer is willing to make up the costs of production in ad sales. It's surprising that Google themselves have not already put this into action, but with Google I/O 2012 just a little over a month away, it wouldn't be too surprising to see the big “G” follow suit.
The details have yet to be fully ironed out and many questions and concerns have already made some noise on the matter. So is Amazon going to incorporate this change on all existing and new tablets or will this just be for the new adopters? I kind of feel like it's a little late in the game for Amazon to all of a sudden make this change for current Kindle Fire owners. You have been enjoying an ad free experience this whole time and all of a sudden you are going to be bombarded with ads, something most of you I am sure did not sign up for from the start. Sadly, this is the new reality if we are to get products at low cost or even free. Take apps in the Google Play Store, for instance. We all have downloaded a free app in the past that was ad free and then updated to a new version with sneak attack ad incorporation.
The Kindle Fire aside, I would certainly like to see more options for consumers in the future and I believe that selling mobile devices at a cheaper cost in exchange for advertisements is a nice start. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
source: Adage
So Amazon will, of course, lower their prices from $199 now that the tablets are essentially being subsidized, right? RIGHT?
I am so tired of ads everywhere.