# Amazon planning to sell ads on Kindle Fire welcome screen



## greyparrot (Dec 17, 2008)

This is from AppleInsider:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon planning to sell ads on Kindle Fire welcome screen

By Katie Marsal

Published: 02:14 PM EST (11:14 AM PST)
Amazon has reportedly begun pitching to advertising agencies the opportunity to advertise on the welcome screen of its Kindle Fire tablet for a price of $600,000.

Details on the program were shared this week by an executive at an ad agency with Ad Age. Amazon was said to have pitched the new advertising program to the agency, offering more ad inventory and the opportunity to be included in an Amazon public relations campaign if they spend $1 million on Kindle Fire ads.

Amazon already sells ad-supported versions of its e-ink-based Kindle readers, which are advertised as "Kindle with Special Offers." On those devices, advertising-driven screen savers will display when the hardware is not in use.

It's unknown whether Amazon plans to offer a new ad-supported Kindle Fire at an even lower price than the hardware's current $199 cost, or if it plans to place ads on the welcome screens of existing Kindle Fire owners. However, Ad Age did state the $600,000 minimum ad buy-in would be a high price "for an ad unit on a device that currently has no distribution," *suggesting the ads will be displayed on current models.* (highlighting by me)

Agency executives who spoke about Amazon's pitch to them off the record declined to participate the in-the-works advertising program. They expressed concern over the fact that Amazon isn't guaranteeing the number of devices the advertisements will reach, because Amazon "hasn't decided whether the ads will start popping up on devices that have already been purchased or just on new devices."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If they decide to push ads to my Kindle Fire I'll not be buying books from Amazon any longer! I've been a customer since Kindle 1.


----------



## KingAl (Feb 21, 2011)

I'm pretty sure that any ads on existing models would work the same way as the e-ink models -- you can choose to get ads.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

There's apparently a long thread about this on the Amazon forums where people are up in arms.  

Makes me chuckle.

I don't understand getting so bent out of shape about something that's nothing more than rumor and about which there are absolutely no details.  When/if it happens, is time enough to decide on a response.  Or not.


----------



## n4uau (Nov 26, 2011)

and even it is true so what, they are easy to ignore,  I hardly see the ones on the touch.


----------



## greyparrot (Dec 17, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> There's apparently a long thread about this on the Amazon forums where people are up in arms.
> 
> Makes me chuckle.
> 
> I don't understand getting so bent out of shape about something that's nothing more than rumor and about which there are absolutely no details. When/if it happens, is time enough to decide on a response. Or not.


I think that letting Amazon know the feelings of their customers before they make a decision is appropriate.



n4uau said:


> and even it is true so what, they are easy to ignore, I hardly see the ones on the touch.


if I buy a hardcover book I don't have ads and I don't want them or have to ignore them when I read an eBook on my Kindle. I wouldn't buy any ad supported device. i will gladly pay a premium to be ad free. I purchased a Kindle Fire that was ad free and I expect it stay that way.


----------



## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

greyparrot said:


> I think that letting Amazon know the feelings of their customers before they make a decision is appropriate.
> 
> if I buy a hardcover book I don't have ads and I don't want them or have to ignore them when I read an eBook on my Kindle. I wouldn't buy any ad supported device. i will gladly pay a premium to be ad free. I purchased a Kindle Fire that was ad free and I expect it stay that way.


The ads on the e-inks are not in the books, they are on the "sleep" screen when the kindle is turned off, and are on the bottom of the home screen. If you keep a book open on the kindle, you only see them on the screensaver. And this sounds like they are planning the same thing on the fire. Personally, I find the special offers a lot less annoying than ads on the internet.


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I have no objection to politely voicing a customer opinion. There are plenty of ways to provide feedback to the "powers that be" at Amazon about what one likes or doesn't or wants or doesn't in their Kindle. Ranting in a forum thread (and some of the posts were pretty 'ranty' ) that may or may not even be monitored by the folks who can make a change, however, is unlikely to advance one's cause. 

FWIW, I have a 'special offers' kindle; when I'm reading they're 100% forgotten.  I'd thought I might 'buy out' of them if they became annoying, but, honestly, I barely notice them any more. They're there when I turn the thing on or off, but it lives in a case with a cover so I don't seem them much. If they do the Fire the same way, I don't see it as a big deal. (Though I do really like the images they currently use on the 'on' screen.)

I also don't see why any advertiser would bother, if I'm at all typical.   The only ones I've taken advantage of are Amazon $1 book offers.


----------



## kindlegrl81 (Jan 19, 2010)

I find it highly unlikely that Amazon will force advertizements onto the Fires that have already been purchased.  They didn't do it to the eink Kindles that were pre special offers so why would they do it to the Fire?  They may offer it as an option to people, like they eventually did with the eink Kindles but I doubt it will be required.


----------



## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

greyparrot said:


> I think that letting Amazon know the feelings of their customers before they make a decision is appropriate.
> 
> if I buy a hardcover book I don't have ads and I don't want them or have to ignore them when I read an eBook on my Kindle. I wouldn't buy any ad supported device. i will gladly pay a premium to be ad free. I purchased a Kindle Fire that was ad free and I expect it stay that way.


If folks want to let Amazon know their feelings, a more appropriate way might be through the Fire itself, through their "Help & Feedback" area under settings. But people do love to get spun up on rumors, especially on Amazon's Kindle discussion board. That's probably why I rarely go there any more.

Me, I opted in to the ads on my K3 (which I'd gotten before the KSO was available) - the pictures were much nicer than those deceased authors (although I'd actually added my own screensavers). And I gladly took the $30 discount on my K$79. The ads don't bother me a bit. I've gotten some additional discounts on music downloads & books, and got a GREAT deal on my official Amazon cover for my K4 using a KSO discount, so it's saved me a good bit more than $30. And despite the rumor in the quoted article, I'd expect Amazon to handle ads on the Fire the same way the did with the eInk Kindles. You can opt in if your Fire pre-dates the implementation of ads, otherwise you won't get them.

Then again, maybe I'm older than you - I remember when there WERE ads in paper books, and they never bothered me either. Actually there still are ads in a lot of paper books - they're just ads for other books.


----------



## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

Yeah, I suspect this will be a Special Offers situation. Fine by me!


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Meemo said:


> Then again, maybe I'm older than you - I remember when there WERE ads in paper books, and they never bothered me either. Actually there still are ads in a lot of paper books - they're just ads for other books.


I remember there being ads in paperbacks too. . . .usually cigarette ads and usually right in the middle on stiff paper -- unlike the paper of the actual book.  Impossible to remove cleanly and annoying to read around. 

And also pages at the back with order forms so you could order more books.  Even now when I see a book like that with an order form for books for 35¢ or something I always want to send in an order and see if I get a response.


----------



## KingAl (Feb 21, 2011)

greyparrot said:


> I think that letting Amazon know the feelings of their customers before they make a decision is appropriate.
> 
> if I buy a hardcover book I don't have ads and I don't want them or have to ignore them when I read an eBook on my Kindle. I wouldn't buy any ad supported device. i will gladly pay a premium to be ad free. I purchased a Kindle Fire that was ad free and I expect it stay that way.


Actually, many DTBs do have advertising -- previews of other books by the same author being a common example.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

> I don't understand getting so bent out of shape about something that's nothing more than rumor and about which there are absolutely no details.


It's great for web traffic, though.


----------



## Dragle (Dec 10, 2011)

Amazon will also need to remember that as a tablet that is much more than an ebook reader, and in competing with other tablets, the ad-supported model may not go over quite as well. The way it's done on the regular Kindles is pretty unobtrusive, but on the Fire I can see them putting ads with animation and sound, even full-out commercials, and they would have the ability to hold you up from starting your app until the ad has finished.  I don't expect this to happen soon, but it does look like the industry is headed this way; even Microsoft is planning to do something like this with Windows 8 on ARM devices.


----------



## fuschiahedgehog (Feb 23, 2010)

I will be upset if ads start popping up on the kids' Fires.  We did not purchase ad-supported hardware.  I do have a special-offers K4, but I knew when I bought it there would be ads.


----------

