Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library–which allows Amazon Prime customers to “borrow” one free e-book at a time from a selection of more than 5,000–may have been warmly received by Kindle users when it was announced last week, but according to the Authors Guild, the move is nothing more than “an exercise of brute economic power.”
Amazon’s Kindle Fire arrives on Tuesday to shake up the tablet market, and the reviews are rolling in.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, after Wired’s Steven Levy remarked that Amazon’s new $199 Kindle Fire tablet “seems like more than merely another iPad competitor.” Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think [Wired]
Amazon is good at making things simple. Amazon has taste. Amazon has stores for movies, music, books, magazines, and apps, all of which are already hooked up to our credit cards and shipping addresses. Most important, Amazon has already done a lot of the heavy lifting required to build a phone. It could simply repurpose much of the effort it’s poured into the Kindle Fire tablet, and then add phone-specific features.
Today only, Amazon is selling the new Motorola Droid RAZR smartphone for $111.11 with a two-year Verizon contract. The phone normally goes for $300 otherwise. Motorola Droid RAZR 4G Android Phone [Amazon.com]
The days of skirting around having to pay retail sales tax by shopping online may be coming to a close—and Amazon, of all companies, is supporting the effort.
Amazon loses at least $5.25 on every single Kindle Touch sold, according to a report on TheStreet.com that estimates manufacturing costs for the $79 device coming in around $84.25. That latter number doesn’t include cost for shipping or software, meaning that Amazon’s losses are undoubtedly even greater. Exclusive: Amazon’s $79 Kindle Costs $84 to Make [...]
