Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD: $15 to Lose Pre-Loaded Ads
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Amazon(NEW YORK) — Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD starts at $199, but it will cost $214 if you don’t want ads on your screen.
Last week when Amazon unveiled the new tablets it didn’t mention that the company would be getting a bit more aggressive in marketing Amazon.com books, movies, and deals to tablet users.
Amazon told ABC News last week that the all Kindle Fires would come with its “Special Offers,” which, like the offers on the current Kindle e-readers, show full-screen ads when the device is powered off or in sleep mode. Amazon said there was no way to disable them on the Kindle Fire HD tablets. On the tablets, the offers or the ads appear on the lock screen and include ads for movies or books you might want to buy through Amazon’s store.
However, Amazon changed its tune over the weekend and now says it will offer users a $15 option to disable the ads. “We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out. We’re happy to offer customers the choice,” an Amazon spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said last week that Amazon is able to make its hardware so affordable because it wants to make its money after you get it out of the box. “We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices,” he said. Through advertising, Amazon hopes you’ll be alerted to even more content and then in turn you’ll buy that movie or album right on the device.
The new 7-inch Kindle Fire HD, which has a dual-core processor, improved MIMO Wi-Fi, and stereo speakers, will start shipping Sept. 14. The 8.9-inch version, which has a higher resolution screen, will ship later in November.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio