said by asdfdfdfdfdf :But they aren't charging you to access their store. You can still, if you choose, buy the less expensive product without wi-fi or 3g, access their store through your normal internet connection, download books on your computer and then move them onto your reader(which is what I have to do with my sony reader). What you are paying for is the convenience of having the 3g hardware and lifetime 3g access on the reader so that you can buy and load books anywhere anytime without being tethered to your computer. If that isn't worth $50 to you then you can buy the cheaper kindle, but it seems reasonable to me given the high monthly cost of 3g services in the US.
Just so. You are buying an ereader...
not a general-purpose tablet. Pearl e-ink format is superior for readability, but not at all ideal for web browsing. The 3G connectivity is really meant for the purpose of making it convenient to download books from the Amazon store regardless of your whereabouts...not much else.