Carphone Warehouse to chuck in free Kindle with phone buys
3G e-book reader almost as cheap
Carphone Warehouse has begun selling Amazon's Kindle. Ditto CW's joint venture with the Yanks, Best Buy UK.
You can buy the popular e-book reader, paying for £111 for the Wi-Fi only model and £152 for the version with bundled 3G connectivity.
That's what Amazon charges - and other Kindle sellers, such as John Lewis, Currys and PC World.
But CW said it will give the Kindle away with a variety of phones on two-year contracts, so if you're upgrading your handset anyway, this may be a good opportunity to avail yourself of a gratis e-book reader too.
Unless it's the 3G model you want - that's £15 when bundled with a phone.
CW hasn't yet said which handsets will come accompanied by the Amazon gadget. ®
COMMENTS
@Warhouse?
I wonder how long a contract you have to take out to get a free Uzi 9mm or a Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range!
pretty common in our office
I have one and so do 3 others out of a 16 sitting near me at work. We all bought independently... but they are only popular with people who actually enjoy reading...
There's been a rumour for the past few months..
... That Amazon US might start offering Kindles (wi-fi) for free with the Amazon Prime accounts.
(This has been going rounds for a few months, so not sure if it's accurate!)
It's $79 for the Prime account, so Amazon losing $20 or so per kindle, but having them locked into Amazons system coupled with the *Free* Streaming Movie service for Prime accounts it might pay off for Amazon in the long run...
@Desperate?
I travelled on business to France in January and I was surprised by the number of Kindles (and, for that matter iPad's) I saw being used in airports and on the flights.
N.b. in any case bundling them with phones is not a sign of desperation by Amazon ... its BB/CW trying to sell more phones and handing back their "sign-up" commission from the networks in the form of a Kindle rather than the more traditional xbox/ps3 etc
