Scribd, after dabbling for a long time in the pdf sharing arena, has changed for a model just like this some time ago. One of the founders has even come here at HN recently to talk about it (I can't find the post right now).<p>I wonder how will they react to this announcement. If they try to compete directly, not only will it be an uphill battle, but Amazon has a hell of firepower with the Kindle and Fire ecosystems.
Yes! Yes! Yes!<p>If this happens, it will be my dream come true. Unlimited ebooks/audiobooks is probably my #1 most requested "feature" from the world. Especially since Amazon allows syncing between audiobooks and ebooks, but I really hate paying for both.<p>Seriously, I'm such an Amazon fanboy :)<p>Interesting to see what the difference between publishing books online vs. publishing real book will be in 10 years.
Some people seem to be missing the point about "why Amazon would do this and 'cannibalize' itself". Here's why - yes, some people are going to pay the $10 a month, and read 5 books a month, and those will be like 1 percent of their e-book customers. The vast majority, if switched to this model, would pay $10 a month, and only read 2 books a year. The rest, will keep buying ebooks just like now, so nothing will change from that perspective.<p>I'm guessing Amazon has enough data to know that this will end up profitable for them. In a way, it's just like Prime. Some probably order a ton of stuff every month, becoming unprofitable Prime members for Amazon, while others only a couple of year, yet still pay $99 a year for free shipping.<p>It's only like any other "unlimited" deal out there. Some customers will be very unprofitable as they will take full advantage of the "unlimited" offer, but the vast majority of the customers will more than make up for it.
At least from the good reads I gather hardly people read more that 2 books per month. In a way $10 dollars is just the same thing, assuming $5 dollar is your average price of the book. If anything Amazon will profit from the all the users who read less but simply subscribe to it.<p>It feels like gym membership for books.
I'm guessing the ebooks will only be available on true Kindle devices. I just wanted to use the Prime Lending Library for the first time last week, and was disappointed that books can only be rented and viewed on Kindle devices, so my iPad and PC reader are out of luck. They don't broadcast this fact very clearly either, since to me "Kindle device" implies any official Kindle client.