Kindle’s WhisperNet Gets a Conventional Pricing Model
Amazon’s Kindle is a popular e-book reader and that popularity is as much due to the wireless WhisperNet service as it is to how good an electronic reader the Kindle is. WhisperNet is the Sprint-based EV-DO network that pushes books and user content to the Kindle, seemingly without cost and without effort to the owner.
Amazon has always allowed Kindle owners to send their own content, such as PDF documents, to their Kindle with a simple mechanism of emailing the content to the device. This has always cost a flat 10 cents per document no matter how big. That has now been changed in favor of a more conventional pricing model that is 15 cents per megabyte for such transfers. Transfer sizes are rounded to the next highest MB in size for billing so all documents now cost at least 15 cents, with the larger documents costing more. It seems that Amazon must be paying a lot to Sprint for these transfers and they now need to make the users pay.
(via Gear Diary)
“It seems that Amazon must be paying a lot to Sprint for these transfers and they now need to make the users pay.”
Could be. Or Amazon is trying to generate additional revenue for themselves. Perhaps they didn’t figure many people would use this service but it is getting used quite a bit and therefore an opportunity they initially overlooked. It would really be interesting to know the details of the agreement for Sprint’s services. Maybe there’s some breakdown or hints in the financial statements of one or both of these companies.
Doubt you’ll get the details. I know how we did things at Dash (which was not Sprint), who knows if Amazon/Sprint worked out a similar arrangement. Though I’m probably prohibited from sharing. Like you and James, I wonder at the motivation – perhaps it’s to prevent or limit people from uploading other (open) ebook formats.
lame, but whatever, since i don’t have a kindle, and couldn’t use whispernet from japan anyway.
by the way, i wish kindle would get rid of the stupid keyboard and make the screen the entire surface of the device. and then touchscreen with a virtual keyboard. basically, like the sony reader, but with wireless, and supporting amazon’s books. only, i wish amazon would use epub instead of their own stupid proprietary format.
I expect Amazon thought people would send short emails, and instead they’re sending books and very long business and government reports.
Welcome to the end of Kindle!
I’m sure this is just the first step in the transition to a subscription model for the Whispernet service. Soon enough, every Kindle user will have a monthly charge for the service like mobile phones. I saw this coming from day 1. Lifetime wireless service + device for $359? Too good to be true…
All they’ve done is open themselves up to lose the battle against the rumored “iPad” from Apple which will do everything the Kindle does as well as be a substitute for a netbook.
Maybe that was Bezo’s plan all along – “Kindle” may transition to a service/app you install on other devices and still require a monthly subscription. The actual harware reader may have been a means to an end and in the long run not the core piece of the business model.
Before we rush too far into thinking Amazon will discontinue whispernet or charge monthy for existing owners, consider. Sprint has to compete with AT&T in the device market. AT&T has iPhone, sprint now has Kindle showcasing their service.
The bandwidth used by Kindles is minimal. And anyone who has browses with it’s experimental browser likely will agree it isn’t an oft used function. My guess is Amazon got whispernet for a few bucks per device sold. .15 cents per convert/download more than covers the cost of 1 MB transfer.
Now my Kindle conspiracy theory is in another year or two they’ll dramatically increase the price of books.