It’s not official, but there are rumblings that Amazon is forging plans to offer a free Amazon Kindle to their Prime subscribers. If you’re not familiar with Amazon Prime, it’s a two day shipping program that Amazon offer their heavy Amazon users. This expedited service comes with an annual fee of $79.

This isn’t the first time that the bookseller has toyed with the idea of giving away free Kindles as an Amazon promotion that ran last month offered consumers a Kindle with the promise that if you didn’t “love it”, you would be entitled to a full refund of your money AND you could keep the kindle.

There are many reasons why this potential Amazon promotion doesn’t sound far fetched, the most notable of which is the avalanche of tablet computers including the Apple iPad which are coming on the market over the next few months. That, plus the competition that is already at hand will make this a very crowded playing field over the coming months and Amazon will need to do something to stand out.

For Amazon to giveaway Kindles, the dollar figures are going to have to work for the number crunchers. We’ve already seen a couple of price drops for the Kindle 2 which on launch in February 2009, retailed for $359. Over the next 8 months, the Kindle saw two price drops to $299 in July followed by another drop to $259 in October.

A free Kindle for prime subscribers would have to be a good gesture towards fostering good publisher relationships, building a loyal fan base as well an opportunity to garner some positive media attention.

Via: Venture Beat