• TechCrunch, Friday, February 12, 2010 1:58 PM

Take that, Apple! Amazon is planning to give away its Kindle e-reader devices to Amazon Prime subscribers, sources tell TechCrunch. Amazon Prime is a subscription product that gives customers free two day shipping on everything they buy from Amazon, and presently costs $79 a year.

Still, while the plan is surely designed to undercut Apple's iPad efforts, Amazon isn't interested in loosing money on the effort. "These are Amazon's very best customers -- the ones who tend to make multiple purchases per month," notes TechCrunch. "If those users buy enough books, and Amazon gets the production costs of the Kindle down enough, Amazon can get Kindles into 'millions' of people's hands without losing their shirt."

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