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I’d have less of a problem with this if they went about it the way Amazon sells ads on their Kindle e-readers: - You can buy the device for $X, and it’s marked

I’d have less of a problem with this if they went about it the way Amazon sells ads on their Kindle e-readers: - You can buy the device for $X, and it’s marked as being sold “with special offers” (a euphemism for ads that would be more explicit in an ideal world) - You can buy the device for $X + $Y, and it’s marked as being sold “without special offers” - You can buy the device for $X “with special offers” today, but you can spend $Y once you have the device to “disable special offers” This case is pretty terrible because Samsung isn’t giving buyers the ability to pay them the $10 directly to disable ads while not being up-front about whether or not ads will be served.

criddell 6y ago
Turning off the ads should also turn off the surveillance.
delecti 6y ago
The "Special Offers" also have the advantage of being super unobtrusive, especially when the device is actually in use. That's not really the case here.
joombaga 6y ago
One more option that was at least available on older Kindles - You can buy the device for $X “with special offers” today, then hack it and remove the "special offers". I don't know how prevalent this is, but wonder if it's a consideration in deciding on the "money to disable ads" strategy.
- LordDragonfang 6y ago
  While it may not appear that way in the HN crowd, the number of users who actually jailbreak their devices is effectively zero when you're determining revenue models. Especially nowadays, when most of the features people care about have been implemented.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    That depends on how easy it is to do the jailbreak. If you can package a self-contained solution, or provide simple to follow instructions, the word will spread, and a lot of people will be doing it. When I was buying my Paperwhite, I just ordered the ad-free version from amazon (.com or .co.uk, don't remember which). And then a couple co-workers (agreed, computer people, but very much not the type that's into tinkering or cracking software) looked at me with surprise, because it turns out everyone does the "standard" route - order "special offers" from amazon.de, and save money while getting an ad-free Kindle, because AFAIR initially the special offers didn't even display in Poland, and when they did, apparently everyone knew how to jump some hoops to get rid of them.
ketralnis 6y ago
In the Kindle case I did pay the extra for the advertising-free version and they happily advertise on it anyway, including push notifications in the middle of the night that make noise. Infuriating.

criddell 6y ago

Turning off the ads should also turn off the surveillance.

delecti 6y ago

The "Special Offers" also have the advantage of being super unobtrusive, especially when the device is actually in use. That's not really the case here.

joombaga 6y ago

One more option that was at least available on older Kindles - You can buy the device for $X “with special offers” today, then hack it and remove the "special offers". I don't know how prevalent this is, but wonder if it's a consideration in deciding on the "money to disable ads" strategy.

LordDragonfang 6y ago
While it may not appear that way in the HN crowd, the number of users who actually jailbreak their devices is effectively zero when you're determining revenue models. Especially nowadays, when most of the features people care about have been implemented.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  That depends on how easy it is to do the jailbreak. If you can package a self-contained solution, or provide simple to follow instructions, the word will spread, and a lot of people will be doing it. When I was buying my Paperwhite, I just ordered the ad-free version from amazon (.com or .co.uk, don't remember which). And then a couple co-workers (agreed, computer people, but very much not the type that's into tinkering or cracking software) looked at me with surprise, because it turns out everyone does the "standard" route - order "special offers" from amazon.de, and save money while getting an ad-free Kindle, because AFAIR initially the special offers didn't even display in Poland, and when they did, apparently everyone knew how to jump some hoops to get rid of them.

ketralnis 6y ago

In the Kindle case I did pay the extra for the advertising-free version and they happily advertise on it anyway, including push notifications in the middle of the night that make noise. Infuriating.