Take this forecast with a BIG grain of salt, but the blog The Technium has a post predicting that the price of Amazon's Kindle e-reader could drop to nothing -- i.e. free! -- by the end of the year. Blogger Kevin Kelly points out that a year and a half ago, John Walkenbach observed that the price of the Kindle was dropping so consistently and quickly that he envisioned a time when it would be free. November 2011 to be precise. The trick, Kelly writes, "is figuring out how Amazon could bundle the free Kindle and still make money. My thought was the cell phone model; a free Kindle is you buy X number of e-books." But Kelly went even further, reporting on a rumor that surfaced in TechCrunch which suggested a free Kindle for every Amazon Prime customer (a membership loyalty program). The Technium post concludes: "What could be more satisfying than a free Kindle, free movies, and free 2-day shipping for $80 a year? If the past is any indication of future events, expect an as-if-free Kindle in time for the holidays. Brilliant indeed!" And speaking of free e-reading devices, a Hartford, CT, bank is offering a free Kindle if customers open a new bank account. So much for toasters.
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