Geek.com and Target have put together foreheads and came up with a simple, but elegant strategy to ask the internet users, why they haven’t purchased an e-book yet.  The model is beautiful in its simplicity.  They are giving away one Kindle (kindly provided by Target) to a randomly chosen user.  In order to enter the contest, one has to leave a comment, explaining why he or she has not bought an e-book.  Randomly selected comment will be the winner and the future owner of the free Kindle.  Users have to leave their comments at http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/geek-com-holiday-giveaway-win-a-kindle-20101216/.

The contest ends tomorrow, Tuesday, December 21, 2010.

Some restrictions apply:

• US residents only
• Please use a working email in your comment. It won’t be used for anything aside from contacting the winner.
• Only one comment per e-mail address, if we see more than one, you won’t be included in the draw
• The winner will have 24 hours to respond and after that time we’ll move on to the next person.
• By the way – We’ll ship as soon as possible but no promises that this will arrive before Xmas!

via Geek.com

So far, I can divide the answers into three major categories.

The biggest chunk of the answers is about the price of an e-book.  In this category, people cannot find a good justification for paying over $100 for an e-book, and then continue to pay for the books.

Linda explains, “I haven’t yet purchased a Kindle because of the price. It’s not only a large initial outlay, but the cost of purchasing books is also somewhat prohibitive. I download and listen to audiobooks for free through my public library, and the price can’t be beat!”

Also, Gary Blakesley writes, “The price of an e-reader does not make economic sense until the difference in price of the e-book versus printed book is such that you can easily make up for the e-reader price”.

“nascarfan09” says, “If you purchase an e-book you can’t resell or share like you can with a regular book.”

In the second category, people are waiting for certain improvements in the world of e-books, such as color, faster e-ink, better text-book availability, etc.

Ashley Jellen says, “I have not bought a Kindle because I am waiting for the device to be more educational-oriented. Reading books on kindle are great but I want to use it for studying as well. I hope they will offer e-textbook on kindle and give the option to see e-books with page number.”

The third category consists of the real-book-lovers.

User with a nickname “Tacoloft” comments, “I have not purchased an e-book reader because I am so fond of actual books. Also, the idea I could lose all of my digital books due to hardware failure makes me hesitant.”

On one hand, this contest is a good advertisement for Target’s Kindle sales rack – Target sells 3G model for $189 and Wi-Fi model for $139.  On another hand, it is a quality outreach towards “e-book-less” internet users.  The only problem with the purity of the answers is the fact that those, who participate in this contest, are the ones, who do not have an e-book, but desiring to have it one day.  Personally, I would also like to hear the answers of the ardent e-book-haters – those who do not own an e-book and not planning to purchase it at this moment.