August 25, 2008
Amazon Plans to Market Its E-Book Reader to Colleges
Amazon is considering entering the student textbook market with a new version of its Kindle e-book reader, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Most publishers now offer electronic versions of their textbooks, but so far there’s not an attractive enough e-book reader, and Amazon aims to fill that void. The college-oriented new model might be larger and include student-friendly features, such as allowing making annotations, according to a technology blog.
Amazon officers also said the high Kindle sales estimates calculated by TechCrunch—a popular blog on internet products and companies—are not accurate. But the electronic company refuses to make public how many e-book reader units it has sold since Kindle was launched last November.—Maria José Viñas
Posted on Monday August 25, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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I spotted a Kindle in the wild this weekend on a MetroNorth train into NYC. Much smaller than I pictured it to be.
— Dan Russell Aug 25, 12:59 PM #
One hopes that publishers will recognize that the Kindle reduces a significant amount of risk for them with regard to protection of their intellectual property and lower prices accordingly. If all they do is knock $2.00 off the print price, that will not be sufficient to calm the concerns of students, parents and universities.
— Jill O"Neill Aug 25, 04:46 PM #
I have yet to take the plunge with the Kindle (waiting for new model(s), rumored to be coming later this year?). However, I am encouraged by the thought of the e-book in the college environment. The Kindle (as well as other e-books) provides some nice features that would support various activities, most notably bookmarking of certain sections and text search. (Of course, there is the downside of student’s bypassing reading for searching for certain keywords, plus how do you do an “open book” test with these features?).
I would concur with #2 (Jill) regarding the economics behind the e-books — some publishers have “gotten it” and priced accordingly; others assume that users are buying for “cool” as opposed to economy and have not significantly reduced their prices from printed versions.
— Kevin O Aug 25, 05:58 PM #
I want to like the Kindle but I’m still not into the form factor. I took it on a flight last week and read 50 pages of a book I want to dig through. I bumped into the author of the Kindle book a couple of days later and bitched about the lack of vector graphics; she agreed. Then another author gave me a copy of her new book, and I couldn’t face going back to the bland little Kindle screen I can’t draw on.
— Jay Cross Aug 26, 12:41 AM #
Why are these e-book readers not selling like hot cakes??? my cell has the ability to download books…u go to Guttenberg.com scroll thru the free ebooks and grab one…download to your mobile and u are done…I am reading some Sherlock Holmes right now…When? u are waiting somewheres and are bored…otherwise most of us read on our PC or laptop…that is why the Kindle and all those “yet another device to carry” have not overrun the market place…those ebook readers are aboot ten years too late…sorry…
— deadmonz Aug 26, 06:09 AM #
The codex book is a very user-friendly medium and has had 550 years to carve out a niche since the invention of movable type. But who thinks print will hang on indefinitely in the wealthy precincts as computing power and connectivity spread? Nobody. I think there are a lot of factors in the gradual displacement of print by computers but the main one is the human-machine interface: the way the page looks and the amount of information it can communicate. The Kindle does make a big step in the direction of emulating the human-print interface as the display is very print-like. The art of typography was perfected over 500 years because the design of the type face is important for comprehension and aesthetic satisfaction. When we can enjoy the comfort of reading from a page that is not lit from behind like a computer screen but from ambient light like a Kindle, and print-quality resolution is achieved, all of the information embedded in the font can be conveyed to the reader as well. Then, add in all the hyperlinks, connection to vast digital libraries and so forth, at a reasonable price, and the print book will very quickly cease to be the format of choice for many applications. That doesn’t mean books or libraries will go away, but when that day comes it will accelerate the rate of change of how we relate to books and what we use our libraries for.
— Philip J Tramdack Aug 26, 07:29 AM #
One thing I like about printed books is that the ‘technology’ of the book is completely separate from the ‘technology’ of reading. I underlined for many years and then met up with the highlighter. I didn’t have to buy an all new book reader to use the highlighter. Most of the devices now allow you to take notes but I also like to draw out kin relations when reading histories. Would I need a new reader for that? On the other hand, it would be fabulous to hyperlink names in a history text to identify which Lady Mary the book is referring to; or remind me what year we are in at this point; or provide a map showing where the events took place. Those kinds of things would make it useful to buy an electronic book reader for me. Of course I’d probably want to be able to write on the map, too.
— Sue Aug 26, 08:16 AM #
The Kindle is attractive to me as an educator both for myself not wanting to lug around lots of books back and forth and for students. But for me to be happy with it, it needs to (1) have bigger print to accommodate the visually-strained eyes of students and teachers and (2) cost less. Right now, the rich kids (and professors) can afford it and the rest of us wait and hope the the price will drop.
— andi Aug 26, 08:57 AM #
I haven’t used a Kindle yet, but e-ink technology is the way to go. Even my bibliophiles admit that they would be (more) interested in reading from a non-paper-based device if they didn’t have to stare at a computer screen throwing light back at them.
The Irex ILiad shows promise (it already has a touch screen for annotations). But of course the Kindle has Amazon’s marketing behind it. For me: enlarge the Kindle, hide or remove the keyboard, at iphone-like multi-touch to the interface, price it around the same as an iphone, and I’d buy it today.
And why just college? With all of the studies showing that K-12 kids are bending under the weight of all of their bookbags (now that an increase in security has taken away their lockers), let’s replace their texts with these readers, controlled by a virtual desktop, and touch-screen interactive.
— K. Tribble Aug 26, 09:01 AM #
I am the Access Services Librarian at the University of Nebraska – Omaha, and as such, responsible for Circulation services. In March we purchased five Kindles as an experiment for a faster means of delivering Interlibrary Loan requests. Instead of waiting days, a book request can be filled in a matter of minutes. In May we expanded this service to include popular fiction titles, something our patrons have asked for, but as a research library, a collection area with relatively few choices. This service has been even more popular than Interlibrary Loan and we ordered three more Kindles. More often than not, all eight are checked-out with holds placed waiting for their return. Users have commented they are considering purchasing a Kindle for themselves and wanted to take one for a “test drive” before buying. Students were quick to recognize the potential use for textbooks. Besides the potential cost savings, the idea of carrying around 200 books on one device weighing 10 oz., compared to the equivalent in print is very appealing (not just in weight, but in shelf space, too). I am glad Amazon recognizes the prospective market in academia, and urge them to also consider the potential for Kindle use in libraries as well.
— Joyce Neujahr Aug 26, 09:34 AM #
That’s really interesting, since other libraries have been told loaning out a Kindle with content loaded on it is a violation of the terms of service. Only loaning it out without content is not a violation (of the TOS, though it certainly would violate common sense).
I’m not crazy about a device that can only be used at one bookstore (Amazon) and a book that I cannot legally share or resell. That’s renting, not buying.
But it’s better than those e-textbook platforms that erase the book after a certain amount of time, as if a student in third semester physics or intermediate Spanish never needs to look at a textbook from a previous year.
— barbara fister Aug 26, 09:46 AM #
Ordering E-Books from publishers is a time consuming, arduous process. All books should be available
electronically so that students who are blind can access them in a timely manner.
— mk Aug 26, 10:34 AM #
Since the first printed book, people have been predicting its demise. This is one more effort to imiitate electronically, for imaginary advantages, what does the job very nicely. The idea that it’s going to solve all the problems people have with “expensive” books is amusing. The cost of books has gone up. So has the cost of cigarettes. Fortunately, gasoline is still selling for $.299 a gallon.
“Ten years too late” puts it very well.
— Dan Aug 26, 11:10 AM #
I love my Kindle. Having just sent my first child off to college last and paying an arm and a leg for textbooks, we were both left wondering why can’t she get her books on a Kindle.
It sounds like they are looking to do this with the next generation of Kindle which I’m anxiously waiting for as well. This will help with the crazy cost books for college students.
— AW Aug 26, 12:20 PM #
Alas, I am a lone Sony Reader user….and I LOVE IT!! I travel with at least 2 -3 books because I’m usually finishing one while reading two others but that makes for a very heavy backpack. If you add a computer to the bag and other necessities it can be quite a load. Need I mention going throughy airport security with all of that stuff? NOW, my backpack is light and book free. I get a few looks when I read on the plane or on the T but no one else can switch reading material at the touch of a button. They would have to carry a lot of books to match the variety I have at my finger tips.
I waited and waited for the Kindle to become available again. After researching the Sony Reader I discovered I liked it better anyway so I bought one!!
Happy Reading Everyone!! ;)
— vw Aug 26, 02:40 PM #