Perhaps Jeff Bezos Was Listening

[Note: This post has been updated (1) as of 11:24 PM Eastern on 3 Aug. See below.]

In a November 2009 S&F entry titled, "Jeff Bezos, Are You Listening?", we suggested that Amazon had made a cardinal error in the marketing of their Kindle eBook reader. We wrote, in part (for the full rationale behind this, see the above linked article):

In marketing the Kindle, Amazon has taken the position they're now in the eBook reader business; ergo, the Kindle's retail price of $259 per unit.

But that's exactly the wrong position for Amazon to have taken, and a cardinal error in their marketing of the Kindle. Amazon should all but give the thing away for nothing because, uniquely for Amazon, they're really not in the eBook reader business, but in the eBook business as that's where the money is, and you can't sell a Kindle eBook to someone who has no Kindle eBook reader. If Amazon sold the Kindle for, say, $99 (or not much more than that) even if it cost double that to manufacture, they'd be way ahead of the game as at $99 per unit every book reader in the world could afford, and most would buy, a Kindle, and then the eBook revolution would, finally, after a number of false starts, be off and running, and the floodgates would be opened for Amazon to rack up millions upon millions of dollars in sales of Kindle eBooks — year, after year, after year, ad infinitum (well, for a really long time, at any rate).

Well, it appears that Mr. Bezos may actually have been listening as witness this newest state-of-the-art release of the Kindle priced at a mere $139.

We're sold. Our pre-order is in.

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Update (11:24 PM Eastern on 3 Aug): Oh dear. We just investigated this wireless business for the first time in preparation for delivery of our new Kindle, and discovered we've no access to the necessary wireless "hotspots", as they're called, and so had to cancel our order. Damn shame.