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Will Amazon's Kindle Be Free By November?

01.03.2011
The price of the popular e-reader has plummeted dramatically over the past two years, as growing competition from Apple's iPad and competing e-readers like Barnes & Noble's has inspired some impressive price-cutting on Amazon's part. The Kindle, which cost $350 in February 2009, is now as low as $139 for the Wi-Fi-only version.

So where does it go from here?

Possibly to zero by the end of the year, predicts Wired co-found Kevin Kelly in a February 25 post on his site. Kelly's blog includes the chart below that dramatically illustrates the Kindle's price free-fall since 2009. (The 2011 data, of course, is projected.)

Kelly acknowledges that pundits before him have spotted the Kindle's consistent price decline. Blogger , for instance, predicted the e-reader would be free by November 2011. When Kelly asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos about the Kindle's southward march, Bezos reportedly smiled and said, "Oh, you noticed that!"

A coy response doesn't mean free Kindles by the holidays, of course. But would a free strategy make sense for Amazon?

Business Insider's Jay Yarow , but adds that Amazon may very well offer deeply-discounted Kindles to its Amazon Prime customers, who currently pay $79 per for free, two-day shipping and a new .