E-Book Readers as Stocking Stuffers

However, in all the excitement, perhaps not enough attention is being given to the "stocking stuffers" -- the smaller and less expensive E-Ink e-readers that may not give you a lot of browsing capability, but that may, because of their approximately $100 price tags, be even more of an impulse buy than their sexier siblings.

All three vendors are vying in this market, either by dropping the price of their existing products, or introducing tweaked versions of previous devices.

Amazon has three lower-cost e-readers, starting with the $79 Kindle --yes, that's its entire name. Well, it's $79 if you buy it along with advertisements (Amazon calls them Special Offers), which appear on the screensaver and on the bottom of the home screen. If you don't want to give somebody a gift that pushes ads at them, you can get an ad-free device for an additional $30. The Kindle is a Wi-Fi-only reader, weighing just under 6 oz. and with a 6-in. E-Ink display. You get about 2GB storage (of which about 1.25GB is actually available) plus free cloud storage for Amazon content. The 2GB may not sound like a lot, but keep in mind that this is pretty much reading material only (as opposed to the Kindle Fire, which has a full-fledged Web browser). Amazon also includes what it calls on its site an "experimental browser" -- in the past, the browsers on the Kindles have been pretty basic; I haven't had a chance to try out the latest version.

Neither of these come with the old-style Kindle keyboard; if you miss it, you can get the Kindle Keyboard in both Wi-Fi ($99 or $139) and 3G ($139 and $189) versions; they are slightly heavier and larger than their Touch cousins, but otherwise have the same specs.

Interestingly, the Touch and the Keyboard e-readers come perilously close to the price of a Kindle Fire -- if you want to go ad-free.

Barnes & Noble also, incidentally, dropped the price of its original Nook Color, the first in the field of color e-readers, to $200 (its Nook Tablet is $245).

Back in September, I wrote about the razor blade theory of economics: If you sell a razor at dirt-cheap prices (or give it away), you'll make your profit on the razor blades. When e-readers first started coming out, it seemed as if the vendors hadn't yet learned that lesson; however, with the spate of under-$100 e-readers, it looks like they have, at least, tried to bring the prices down to where even economically-aware consumers could consider one as a holiday gift.

Of course, offering color e-reader/tablets for around $200 to $249 -- up to $200 less than the popular iPad -- can't hurt either. While many commentators are quick to point out that the new color e-readers offer much more limited features, especially in terms of apps and general usability (i.e. no Bluetooth), a family that is finding itself a bit pressed financially could very well find the difference in price significant.

I'm curious as to whether prices will continue to drop in the near future. The popularity of e-readers has proven that we still have a lot of people out there who enjoy reading and who are willing to buy electronic devices that make reading easier. If the profits from e-books become high enough, it's possible that we will be purchasing e-book readers for as much, or less, than a paperback book costs today.