Amazon had a great idea in the Kindle. I’ve played with one briefly and apart from the annoying white-black-white flicker when you change the page, the weight, the convenience and the battery life makes it the best eReader available as far as I’m concerned. It has been finely tuned to specifically be the best eReader out there and it wins.

Amazon announced today that their Kindle will now come as a Kindle With Special Offers which is $25 USD cheaper than the standard price of $139 USD non-Ad version. The problem is simple: someone who wants to buy a kindle will buy one for under $199 and Amazon broke that price barrier a while back. The next price point is $99 and unless Amazon can drop it below that magic number, I don’t see the price cut moving too many more Kindles.

The AppleTV is a great example of this. The original Apple TV didn’t sell too well, but when they redesigned it and cut it to the bone then priced it at $99 it sold like hot cakes.

It’s a step in the right direction but the step wasn’t big enough.