First of all, I want to preface this post with a note that I do not have a Kindle. I actually have nook, though I have kicked around the idea of ordering a Kindle, mainly because my daughter really wants one of her own. But imagine my surprise (Amazon is full of surprises these days) when I went to the Amazon site today and found another note plastered on the home page about the next great thing that they're bundling with a Prime Membership. (Disclosure: Yes, I am a Prime Member and have been for years. Mainly because I'm a last minute Christmas shopper and Prime pays for itself in December with saved shipping costs). They are now graciously offering a lending library option to Prime members who own Kindles. How very kind.
What bothers me is that ALL KINDLE OWNERS deserve borrowing rights. I'm sorry, but nook even got that. People want to lend and borrow ebooks the same as any other real and tangible book with pages. Libraries are moving toward lending ebooks more and more and if my library asked me to join a special club for $79 a year for the privilege, I'd probably tell them to go pound salt. I truly hope that Kindle owners revolt. This type of service should be one that they offer to make themselves even more competitive in the e-reader market. It's the one sticking point that made my decision to buy a nook instead of a Kindle, truth be told! Making it available only to people who are likely heavy Amazon users hence the justifiable $79 membership fee is just plain wrong.
4 comments:
Do you realize that the prime book lending is in addition to having the same library and user to user lending that Nook has? This actually give you one more lending choice than Nook gets. Amazon is a company, in business to make money, they can't give free books to everyone, after they are already taking a loss on the Kindle fire ($220 to build, they sell is for $199)
They are choosing to take a loss on the Fire though as a loss leader. I chafe at the idea of tying lending to a membership fee. The new program does allow you to borrow without a due date, which is great. But again, many libraries are lending Kindle ebooks, though with a shorter time to read (1-2 weeks). For free.
I know they are taking the loss as a loss leader. The point is if they give free books to everyone, it becomes no longer a loss leader, but a loss causer. My main point is that every word about Nook lets you do all these things kindle can't is false, and that this lending is in addition to Kindle having all the same lending capabilities Nook has.
I have a kindle. I can borrow from libraries and other people. Now, with this new policy with their Prime membership, I can borrow books from Amazon (which basically just means I can get even more free books). Many of these books are current or previous best sellers. I don't think anyone else lends books
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