Show me the money!
Looks like I have a new Kindle quest…
Today, it was announced that the Kindle 2 is taking another price cut. Forty bucks. And I want it back.
(I just realized I said $60 in my e-mail to Amazon customer service. Oops.)
(And yesterday I said the first price cut was $100 and it was really $60. Oops x2.)
The following story is from Market Watch.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Amazon.com Inc. cut the price of its Kindle electronic-book reader for the second time this year, as competition continues to grow in the fledgling e-book space.
Late Tuesday night, Amazon /quotes/comstock/15*!amzn/quotes/nls/amzn (AMZN 93.11, +2.20, +2.42%) announced that it cut the price of the Kindle by $40 to $259. The move comes just three months after the company slashed the price tag of the device by $60 — equating a total price reduction of 28% during that period. See full story.
“In our view, the price cut is Amazon’s response not only to economies of scale but also to growing competition,” Sandeep Aggarwal of Collins Stewart wrote in a note to clients Wednesday morning.
The company also announced that it would sell an international version of the device — one that can purchase and download books in more than 100 countries. Previous versions of the Kindle could only be bought and used on wireless networks inside the U.S.
In a statement, the company said the international version of the Kindle will sell for $279 and will be available for shipping on Oct. 19.
The price cut and new international version are likely part of Amazon’s efforts to get in front of the growing competition in the e-reader market. Sony Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!sne/quotes/nls/sne (SNE 28.00, +0.37, +1.34%) has updated its line of e-reader devices, with at least one model priced at $199 — lower than the Kindle.
Also over the next few months, new devices from Netherlands-based iRex and U.S. startup Plastic Logic are set to hit the market.
Shares of Amazon were up 2.6% at $93.27 in early trading Wednesday.
The company does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle, but analysts believe the company has sold more than 1 million units since its original debut in the fall of 2007.
The Kindle allows readers to buy and download books through a wireless connection and read them on the screen. More than 350,000 books — plus magazine and newspaper subscriptions — are available at Amazon’s Kindle store.
One drawback for rivals has been their inability to match the number of new titles that are purchasable through Amazon. Yet they say they are working with publishers and other booksellers, including book-seller Barnes & Noble, to match Amazon’s offering.
Dan Gallagher is MarketWatch’s technology editor, based in San Francisco.
This is pretty poopy…
