October 13, 2012

"Amazon Confirms It Makes No Profit On Kindles."

"We sell the hardware at our cost, so it is break-even on the hardware."
"What we find is that when people buy a Kindle they read four times as much as they did before they bought the Kindle,” said [Jeff] Bezos.... “But they don’t stop buying paper books. Kindle owners read four times as much, but they continue to buy both types of books.”
It's to their advantage, and maybe to your advantage. May I recommend: Kindle Paperwhite.

18 comments:

Ira said...

my understanding months ago was that they expected to make the profit on the downloads, like the restaurant the breaks even on the meal but makes the money on the bottles of wine

BaltoHvar said...

I throughly enjoy my Fire. I read and watch TV - and it has helped break my reliance on my Cable Service as a source of TV entertainment with the additional Streaming Service.

Their "customer-centric" business model is first-rate. If I need to return something, I notify them, and the money is in my account BEFORE the item gets back to them.

Being a lover of books, I found it a little uncomfortable at first reading my first on a Kindle. But, after a year of having one, I must say it is a great investment, and the price cannot be beat.

rhhardin said...

Sell razors at a loss to sell the blades.

PeterK said...

The Gillette model. give away the bladeholde, sell them the razors. same thing goes for printers. inkjet printers are relatively cheap. the money is made on the backside when you have to buy new cartridges

Freeman Hunt said...

I believe that stat about reading more after getting a Kindle. You read more because the Kindle is convenient. Then because you're reading more, your reading is leading you to reading more other things whether they're on the Kindle or not.

edutcher said...

That's how you would expect it to go.

All the books to read on the Kindle are where they make their money.

dbp said...

I don't have a kindle, but I have a kindle ap on my phone. I find that I am reading a lot more than I used to since I always have it with me.

It now makes times when I would have to wait, like at the orthodontist, not a chore but an opportunity.

Anonymous said...

I have a Kindle Fire but it's a bit too bulky to carry around.

When I'm at home I prefer to read books (and I have lots of them).

On the go I read from my iPod which works much better than I expected.

Ann Althouse said...

I have a Kindle but I most read on the Kindle app in my iPad.

I read nearly all the time, though in a completely different way than I used to.

But what does Amazon care whether I finish the books or jump all over the place? They sell me books.

BaltoHvar said...

I did not think of razor blades - indeed what a concept. And I have "been told" that's what drug dealers do too. Give away a little bit at first, then get 'em on the "come back." Quite the business model, apparently.

And to our Distinguished Hostess with the "most" - how DO you read in a different way? With one eye, hanging from your gravity boots, in the dark?

Martin L. Shoemaker said...

But what does Amazon care whether I finish the books or jump all over the place? They sell me books.

Yes. Bezos glosses over something when he says Kindle owners read four times as much: maybe some do, but some simply BUY four times as many books. I speak from personal experience: the Kindle Fire makes impulse book purchasing far too easy. I used to have a stack of maybe ten books I was wading through at a given time. Now I would add at least one digit to that stack, and nearly another.

Buying more books doesn't give me more reading time; but oh, the books are so tempting, and Kindle makes it so easy to give in to temptation!

David said...

This is also good news for Apple.

With that strategy, Kindle will never become a real competitor to iPad.

On the other hand, people are always going to want books, whether electronic or paper. Whether they will always want the stuff Ipad does is less clear. Much of it is frivolous and just for fun. Selling fun is great but people's ideas of fun change.

Amazon sells everything. Apple sells some niches that people like now. Who has the better long term position?

Chip Ahoy said...

The settlement hasn't quite gone through yet, but once it's approved by the court (sometime in early 2013), you should be getting refunds between $.30 and $1.30 on each and every qualifying eBook purchased through Amazon and published by Hachette, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin or Macmillan. The refund will automatically be credited to your Amazon account ...

wyo sis said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rusty said...

I second what BaltoHvar said. Plus I have apps for formulas I use every day.
I've actually used the bubble level app quite a bit. And there are some really good night sky apps as well.
Books too.

Joseph of FP said...

I like the ebook versions, but I also buy hard copies of my favorite books. I consider them backups.

SDN said...

I find that I buy more books, but not from major publishers. When I can buy an e-book from 0.99 to 2.99, I'll try self-published authors I've never heard of. I will NOT buy any fiction book whose Kindle edition is priced more than the mass-market paperback.

Peter said...

"they read four times as much as they did before they bought the Kindle,said [Jeff] Bezos.... ”

I suppose Amazon could, if it wished, figure out how many of those who bought an e-book actually spent time reading it. But why would they bother?

My gripe about Kindles is just that- it's priority is always selling. Selling, selling, selling. "Go to Amazon store" is always the top item on all menus.

Of course, it's not surprising that Amazon wants to use the devices to sell stuff. BUT it's my pocket. And my priority is reading, not buying. So, back it went for a refund.