One of the big advantages enjoyed by Amazon over Barnes and Noble in the Kindle vs Nook stakes is the fact that, for Amazon, the Kindle is much more than an ebook reader. When all’s said and done, the Kindle reader represents an additional – and very effective – retail sales outlet for Amazon.

Priced at just $ 99, the new Kindle Touch reader is a good example of this. The majority of business analysts suspect that Amazon is barely breaking even, and more likely losing money, on their hardware at this price point. But Amazon are happy to do this in anticipation of future sales. The entry level Kindle Touch is subsidized by adverts. These replace the normal pictures of famous authors on the screen saver pages – and they also appear near the bottom of the home screen menu page. If you don’t like the idea of ads on your reader you can pay extra to get rid of them. In this case, your Kindle will cost you $ 139 – which is the same price as the Nook Simple Touch.

Even so, that may well be beside the point. Based upon Amazon’s bestseller’s lists, the majority of people don’t seem to mind the ads – or at least they don’t mind them to the point where they would be prepared to pay extra to have them removed.