Everyone's different, but I have a "Kindle with special offers" from last year, and the sleep screen's ads are actually a feature. They're unobtrusive, informative and have actually saved me money.

If the Kindle Fire implementation is similar, I wouldn't hesitate on that count. (There may very well be other reasons not to get one... We'll see when they come out!)

What kind of ads or "special offers" does the Kindle display? Are they personalized for your Amazon account? How often are they displayed?

They are displayed in two cases:

1) When you turn your Kindle off, there will be a full-screen ad.

2) When browsing books at the main menu, a small horizontal bar across the bottom of the screen will display an ad. You only come to this screen by choice, though -- if you were in the middle of a book when turning off your Kindle, when you turn it back on it will go straight to where you were in the book without showing this menu.

Since they never interfere with reading, they are extremely non-intrusive. I think they are personalized but not positive.

Considering that Amazon knows about most of my online purchases from the past 10 years, the kinds of ads they show indicate that they are not at all targeted. Almost disappointingly so.

And yet a Kindle plus "Ad Removal" is still hundreds of dollars less than the iPad ($15 for the ad removal).

Interesting how you were willing to consider the device beforehand, but that was a deal breaker.

Or maybe it's a matter of principle...

My main problem is being unable to access Amazon's content outside of North America and I'm not prepared to jump through hoops just to get them. In this regard Apple is way ahead of the curve here.

I may be wrong but I thought that there was no ad removal option on the new Fire?

There wasn't originally, but they quickly added the $15 option to remove the ads. BTW: on existing kindles you can pay extra to remove the ads after the fact, so you don't really needs to decide up front. Amazon know that NOBODY buys the ad-free version so they mistakenly believed they didn't need to list an ad-free version separately. But people need to be given the option to feel better even if no one ever actually buys that version.

I own a 3G Kindle that pre-dated ads. When I saw the ads on my wife's newer kindle I actually opted-in to add ads to my version. The ads are more attractive that the default screensaver and occasionally you get a really good deal. (like $5 Amazon credit)