My ad-supported Kindle is on its way

Today Amazon announced that it was moving up the ship date of its ad-supported Kindle. As luck would have it, my pre-order is moving up, too.

If you’re not familiar with the new Kindle, it’s basically the old Wi-Fi Kindle but with “Special Offers and Sponsored Screensavers”. The big selling point is that the ad-supported model brings the normally $139 Kindle down to $114. Of course, for that discount you will have to deal with Sponsored Screensavers and probably some other ads sprinkled inside of your reading experience.

So, why did I buy the ad-supported version? First off, I wanted to try out the experience. I figured that if Amazon made it too intrusive, the customers would complain and Amazon would make a change. Second, while on vacation my wife expressed an interest in a Kindle, so you can’t go wrong with a $114 Kindle.

As for shipping, I ordered my Kindle on April 20th. Amazon originally slated it to arrive on May 5th, but I just received an alert that mine will now show up April 29th. I’ll be sure to power it up and write up a first impressions once it arrives.

I have a feeling that the $114 price will drop soon, though. To only knock off $25 and inundate the customer with ads isn’t going to last. Perhaps this is a trial to see how the customer accepts it, and then maybe it rolls out onto the 3G version, too?

What do you think about the ad-supported model coming to Kindle?

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