The $114 Kindle with Special Offers ships May 3, and limits ads to the device's screensaver and main menu. Amazon has no plans to stuff ads inside e-books, says Amazon vice president of Kindle content Russ Grandinetti. that the company is "pretty skeptical" that ad-supported e-books are something people would want.

Am I the only one who thinks this is too bad? If e-books could be had for cheap--or even free--in exchange for the occasional ad, I'd download them by the dozen.

In theory, the nice thing about e-books is that you can build a huge library in a portable package. But if each e-book costs about the same as its dead-tree counterpart, then you're really just paying an extra $114+ for the convenience. It's no more conducive to building up a library in terms of cost, just space.

Ad-supported e-books could change all of this.

Publishers could work with advertisers to set a fair price on eyeballs, and then use the Kindle's web connectivity to adjust ads in real time. Ad support could also be added to the Kindle platform on phones and tablets. And instead of starting from scratch with a special "ad-supported Kindle," ad-supported e-books would be able to take advantage of the already-established Kindle market.