Amazon to give away 3-month magazine trials with Kindle Fire
updated 06:15 pm EST, Fri November 11, 2011
Helps launch of digital subscription service
Amazon to help kick off the launch of the Kindle Fire is offering unusually long, three-month free trial subscriptions through its Kindle Fire Newsstand. Those who get the Android tablet will have temporary free access to 17 magazines from Condé Nast, including Vanity Fair, GQ, Wired and Glamour. The option extends through to anyone who buys a Kindle Fire by March 1.
Other magazines will be capped at 14-day trials.
Kindle Fire Newsstand is Amazon's effort to push more advanced content out to Kindle Fire customers. The company is offering digital subscriptions to over 400 magazines and newspapers. In addition to Condé Nast, Amazon has lined up other publishers, including Meredith and Hearst, and will be providing interactive access to publications with video and audio such as Better Homes & Gardens, Allure, and Self.
Amazon will begin shipping the Kindle Fire next Tuesday. Orders for the tablet/reader have exceeded initial projections. The online giant is unofficially expected to ship up to five million of the $199 devices between now and the end of the year, making it the most popular Android tablet in the world.
The addition of the newsstand is a direct foil to Barnes & Noble's Nook Newstand for the Nook Tablet, but it also helps partly counter the Newsstand feature in iOS 5. Magazine and newspaper apps on the iPad and iPhone can automatically download in the background and otherwise get special treatment versus regular apps.
