Paying for your Kindle? That's so 2011. It's just a hunch at the moment, but I think that it won't be too long before you can pick up a basic Kindle for free. Well the hardware will be free anyhow funded by the subscription you pay to a publisher or vouchers for books/films/music etc

In fact it is kind of already happening. Walbllog has this story http://wallblog.co.uk/2012/01/09/free-e-readers-with-a-subscription-to-the-ny... on how you can now get a free Nook (the Barnes & Noble Kindle rival) if you subscribe to the digital edition of the New York Times.

Customers who purchase a one-year Nook subscription to The New York Times at $19.99 a month will receive a top-rated Nook Simple Touch for free (usually $99) or a 7 inch Nook Color for just $99 (usually $199).

Of course Amazon is in a much stronger position with the Kindle than B&N are with the Nook, and to start giving away ereaders for nothing won't go down well with the millions who paid cash for them this Christmas. However surely it is a matter of time now before we see deals like this dropping all over the place.

Spend £100 on ebooks and get a free Kindle, or a Kindle Fire for £100. It can't be too far away.

If you are LG/Samsung/Nokia/ASUS how do you take on the iPad? Is it all about knocking out seven inch Android tablets for less than £200?

I think tablet PCs for kids is the obvious money spinner...

One might be to produce a tablet PC aimed squarely at kids. As anyone who shares an iPad and a house with children can testify the iPad is a genius gadget for the under 10s. So what could prove to be a massive seller would be a touch screen tablet with a brightly coloured very durable frame that is packed with all sorts of creative and gaming software. Sell it for less than £250 and ToysRUs would be shifting them by the bucket load (and adult iPad owners might get their gadget back).

The rest of the article is here http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2010/08/how_to_take_on.html

At last, here's an example of a publisher offering an iPad book, but actually giving the reader a little bit more than just the ability to flip pages on their shiny Apple gadget.

Zinio, whose software had powered quite a few iPad magazines so far (the nearest thing to them in the UK is the excellent Ceros http://www.ceros.com) has delivered the Rolling Stones 500 greatest songs of all time complete with audio samples. So for each tune you get a 30 second clip and the option of buying the whole song via iTunes.

It is undoubtedly clever, but there already bloggers who think it is a missed opportunity. In the Cult of Mac http://www.cultofmac.com/review-apple-rolling-stone-and-the-unsatisfying-stat... Lonnie Lazar argues quite rightly IMO

'The missed opportunity here lies in the 30 second samples embedded in the magazine. Couldn’t Apple have used the technology it purchased with the once-promising LaLa to offer whole cuts of each song that could be played all the way through once — for free — as LaLa offered its customers and as other music services such as iLike and Rhapsody offer now?

Is Apple further away from being able to stream iTunes than we think, or was this merely a short-sighted caving to the lure of easy money and the idea that people would just buy the music if the 30 second sample has an iTunes link?'

He also points out that buying the tunes takes the reader away from the app - which is a bit unusual and disruptive.

Nevertheless kudos to Zinio for doing something original. I love the idea of say, Barry Miles book, London Calling, complete with streamed audio of the music he mentions, or the poets he quotes.

I wonder too if the Apple deal (or even better an Amazon one) could work with any publisher. Are there legal/copyright reasons why books can't give away those 30 second audio snippets? I guess not.

Anyway to get the book (which also works with the iPhone and the touch) go here http://gb.zinio.com/browse/publications/index.jsp?productId=500577177 It'll cost you £6.36, but you'll need to download the Zinio app first

Fancy a free iPad?

Well here's how you might one day get one

1 They aren't that expensive to produce anyhow and besides Apple has a mark up of 50% http://www.computerworlduk.com/technology/hardware/laptops/news/index.cfm?new...

2 Old media - think Vogue, Wallpaper etc as well as The Times/Guardian need to agree a digital format that does justice to their beautifully designed publications.

In other words - Big publishing houses aren’t making enough ad money from the web, while at the same time sales of periodicals, which do attract big ad spends, are declining. If those publishers can get their periodical content to look and feel like their paper versions on electronics devices they might be able to continue to attract the big ad spend of the paper editions rather than the limited ad revenue of the web versions. To do this they need to get the best device for reading their content to as many people as quickly as possible. Hearst Publishing is already thinking along these lines with its Skiff ereader. However ultimately it might make sense for all publishers to back one platform – i.e. the iPad.

3 One way to get reach is to offer the device for free - eg Subscribe to Vogue and you get 12 months of the paper edition plus the digital one and a free iPad to view it on. Alternatively big publishing houses could offer a free iPad with subs to say , 3 or 4 of their titles. So you pay £10 a month for a load of mags plus digital versions and a free iPad.

Then one day you don't get the paper versions just the digital ones, you are still a subscriber and you still have a free iPad.

Newspapers could do it too. For an extra £15 a month on your Sky bill (or mobile phone one for that matter) you get the daily newspaper in a digital form and a free iPad to read it on.

It is all about the maths (not my strongest subject) but if old media has any nous it will be offering the hardware that makes the most of its digital ad-friendly content for free

Just a thought