Amazon's September 15, 2011 news about the new Kindle shopping deals included an interesting tidbit. The Kindle with Special Offers are the version of the Kindle that sells the best. According to Amazon Kindle Director Jay Marine, "Since we introduced special offers and lowered the price of Kindle to $114 and Kindle 3G to $139 earlier this year, customer response has been overwhelmingly positive - these quickly became our bestselling Kindles." Kindles with Special Offers are sold for discounted prices because the price is subsidized in part by advertisements.
What is AmazonLocal?
To the end user, AmazonLocal feels a lot like Groupon. Seemingly random deals are offered for local stores and services, and occasionally Amazon affiliates such as myhabit.com and 6pm.com. AmazonLocal started in Boise, Idaho in June of 2011, and on August 25, 2011, Amazon launched AmazonLocal in New York City.
The launch made New York the tenth state with cities that can receive AmazonLocal shopping deals. (To find out when AmazonLocal is arriving in your city, sign up for notification on local.amazon.com. The bargains are all supposed to be at least 50%, according to Amazon's August 25, 2011 news release about the New York edition of AmazonLocal. According to the"Amazon Introduces New York City Residents to AmazonLocal" press information. "AmazonLocal customers can expect to find significant savings every day," according to Mike George, the vice president of AmazonLocal services.
How does Kindle with Special Offers use AmazonLocal?
When a Kindle with Special Offers shows an AmazonLocal shopping bargain, using the coupon is similar to using a Groupon coupon code offer on the Groupon app. Amazon says that users can view the shopping deals on their Kindles, and then redeem them directly on the Kindle by using the credit card associate with an Amazon account. It is not necessary to print a coupon, but it is an option if customers want to print of a copy instead of bringing a Kindle to a store and showing the clerk the voucher.
Kindle with Special Offers does not have the AmazonLocal ads just yet; according to the Amazon media release "AmazonLocal Coming to Kindle with Special Offers," the offers will appear in a software update "for latest generation Kindles in the coming weeks."
Kindle with Special Offers is currently only available in the United States, so international customers will not be able to take advantage of the Amazon sale prices, even if they are using Kindles while visiting New York. Purchases on Kindles are restricted to the country of residence, or at least the country where the Kindle is registered.
Alex Sharp - Alex Sharp is a teacher who has been keeping Suite101 readers up to date with the latest in audio- and e-book gadgetry since 2008.
