AppleInsider Staff
Amazon's Prime service, which offers free streaming video and book borrowing to Apple iOS device users, has seen its annual price increase from $79 per year to $99 per year, while student members will also see a price hike.
The new annual fee marks the first time Amazon Prime has seen a price increase in its nine-year history. Amazon Student members will also now pay $49 per year for their membership.
Current Prime and Student members will be contacted via email by Amazon to provide the renewal date specific to their membership. The increase applies to existing customers set to renew after April 17. The Prime Fresh membership, which offers same-day grocery delivery in Los Angeles and San Francisco, will remain $299.
In its email announcing the change in pricing, Amazon noted that Prime subscriptions have remained unchanged "even as fuel and transportation costs have increased." It also noted that 20 million items are now available for two-day shipping, while 40,000 movies and TV shows are available on Prime Instant Video, and a half-million books can be borrowed for Kindle.
In addition to unlimited streaming with Prime Instant Video and book lending from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, Amazon Prime also comes with free unlimited two-day shipping for eligible purchases.
Video content available to stream for free through Prime can be accessed through the official Amazon Instant Video app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The software also includes built-in support for Apple's AirPlay wireless streaming, allowing content to be viewed on an HDTV via Apple TV.
Also available for Prime subscribers is the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, which allows users to choose from more than 500,000 books to borrow with no due dates. Once titles have been borrowed from Amazon's website, they can be accessed through the official Kindle for iOS application.
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81 Comments
Amazon Insider
I really do think they loss led this for a while. Looking at online pricing, it was hard to beat their pricing and shipping if you factored in the convenience of getting it in 2 days. I figured that almost every shipment (i have 3 subscriptions a month, and spot buy a lot of things), is worth the $11 a month in convenience fees. I often won't go to Target, Home Depot, or even Albertsons and instead just have amazon ship it to me.
But now at an extra $3 a month ($.10 a day) is that convenience still worth it? Most will say yes. So if 50Million people subscribe, all of a sudden there's a Billion in the black (or less red). All the while luring us into commitment...
Clever Girl.
As for Amazon Prime video and books... meh. Not much more than what's on Netflix, and save for Alpha House (and that's REALLY lame compared to House of Cards), I can't remember content I've watched on Prime. and I'm a book buyer.
HEY AMAZON BREAK IT UP I do nt want the other services don't use them why pay for them Amazon the new cable company How do we contact amazon??
DOJ to investigate Apple.
Amazon Insider
"keep your friends close, but your enemies closer"
Contrary to many, Amazon is Apple's real competitor. Many people may hate Samsung, but they are a distant 4th place.
It's all down to 'owning' the sales channel to the consumer. Amazon Prime vs AppleID. Kindle vs iOS.
Amazon is taking the low [no] margin big box warehouse store route... Apple is taking the curated Nieman Marcus catalog approach... Both working towards frictionless purchacing. And they are working towards each other (digital books is the beachhead on Apple's shore, inApp purchases is apple's toward Amazon's vendor marketplace).