Don’t Kindles have multiple tiers though? Ad-subsidized or pay more for an ad-free model

But they have gotten significantly worse over time. I did buy a Fire Stick knowing i was getting ads, but it was so much better the Apps on my smart tv and cheap that it was well worth it. Now it’s gotten bad enough that I no longer use it but suffer through the TV’s apps

I do plan on trying Apple TV in case it stays useable but at this point I’m not buying consumer tech from three years ago

Similarly with the Fire tablet. I knew I was getting ads when I bought them way back when, but tablets were expensive. Fire tablets were much cheaper and quite usable so the tradeoff was worth it. That long since stopped being true, and this experience is e partly why I don’t have an echo show.

I do want some dory of home dashboard, but echo show had never been under consideration. If the Apple rumors are real I might try that but otherwise I guess I’ll see when I have the motivation to build my own

Edit: rereading the post, this is even on devices where people paid extra to be ad free

Yes it has, every amazon product is massively subsidized price wise with the expectation they make it up via advertisements.

I think the only one that really didn't fall down that train was the alexa, but, well we already know where they are making it up on that one.

Second generation Paperwhite was actually really good, and still works nicely. They were still in the capture the market phase with that, so they had to offer some quality.