Amazon cuts price of Kindle 3G

Amazon offers the Kindle 3G with "special offers" for $164 instead of $189, also tweaks description

Not weeks, not days, but mere hours after Barnes & Noble unveiled the All-New Nook, which is has the longest battery life of any other eReader on the market, Amazon characteristically swooped in to call attention back to the Kindle. How? Now you can get a Kindle 3G with “special offers” (advertisements) for just $164. Previously, the Kindle 3G was priced at $189.

Just six weeks ago, Amazon introduced the $114 Kindle Wi-Fi with special offers, which has proven to be quite the success. Amazon claims that the Kindle with special offers is now the best selling item in the whole Kindle family. So of course it makes sense to offer the Kindle 3G with special offers for $164, which Amazon notes is the lowest price of any 3G eReader on the market.

“You will get all the features readers love about Kindle 3G - free 3G wireless, global wireless access, Pearl electronic ink display that's easy to read even in bright sunlight, access to over 950,000 'Buy Once, Read Everywhere' Kindle books - all for just $164 - the lowest price for any 3G e-reader,” said Jay Marine, Director of Amazon Kindle, in a statement.

Ads are displayed on the screen saver when users aren’t reading, and at the bottom of the page when they are reading. Amazon says that the ads do not disrupt reading—which they don’t—but that doesn’t mean they’re not distracting as hell.

Some of the ads that will be delivered to Kindle owners include $10 for a $20 Amazon gift card (not bad…); save $500 on HDTVs, plus a 20% discount on Sony HDTVs; $1 Kindle books, including hit titles like “Water for Elephants” and the “Hunger Games” trilogy; and an offer to get a $10 Amazon gift card when you spend $10 on Kindle books. Okay, so these offers actually sound pretty awesome.

Interestingly, Amazon also made another key change to its Kindle description. When Barnes & Noble claimed that the All-New Nook has the longest battery life of any eReader on the market, I naturally double-checked the Kindle battery life, which was one month, according to yesterday’s Kindle description. Today, however, the Kindle is said to have up to two months of battery life with Wi-Fi turned off.

Barnes & Noble has not stated whether you have to turn off the Nook Wi-Fi in order to get the full two-month battery life, but I’m guessing that’s the case. Barnes & Noble could not be reached for comment.