Yes, it was that kind of weekend – but the Kindle people were actually pretty matter-of-fact about the whole thing: “Holding down the button didn’t work, huh? OK, we’ll mail you a new one: figure you’ll get it Wednesday. Send us the old one within thirty days of you getting the new one and it’s all good.”
I figured that I was going to have to give them an argument… but then, I and the rest of the e-reader demographic are kind of a cash cow to these people, aren’t we? – Not that I mind being actually treated as a cash cow, which is a bit of a refreshing change when it comes to e-commerce.
I remember reading some very persuasive articles that made the case that the Kindle price will eventually be $0 (or near enough) because the money is in the “books.”
This exact scenario happened to me in a Barnes and Noble this weekend with my nook.
Moe, the actual device is treated as a loss leader by Amazon themselves. It’s profitable, but not the whole reason for the entire enterprise. It’s the eBooks that they’re selling that’s the money maker.
Makes sense: I use the Kindle honestly more often than I expected to. I’ve switched over a lot of my buy-on-a-whim purchases to it.
The whole point of a cash cow is to take good care of it so it stays around to keep getting milked.
W-s: keep giving me classic pulp and SF at 99 cents to three bucks and I will say ‘Moo’ with vast contentment.