Report: A Kindle for college kids?
Amid reports that Amazon is working on new models of its e-book reader, the Kindle, one analyst says the online titan has an academic spin in mind.
Amazon's Kindle e-book reader
(Credit: Amazon.com)Amazon sees a chance to cash in by marketing the Kindle to college students, according to McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Tim Bueneman, by way of Seattlepi.com reporter Andrea James.
A collegiate version could be just one of a number of potential Kindles-to-be, apparently. "There are already several new, improved versions of the Kindle in the works," Bueneman wrote in a note Friday, per James.
In July, the site Crunchgear reported that two new Kindles were in the offing: One would have the same dimensions as the existing device, along with an improved interface, and could arrive this fall, while the second would be larger and would come next year. The current 10-ounce Kindle, priced at $359, measures 7.5 inches tall by 5.3 inches wide and 0.7 inch deep.
Bueneman reported that one new version could well feature "improved interface operating controls. This has been an issue with some buyers."
Amazon reportedly is also downplaying some "extremely high estimates" on Kindle sales, according to Bueneman. The company is apparently referring to the likes of CitiGroup analyst Mark Mahaney, who earlier this month upped his estimate and pegged the Kindle to sell about 380,000 units in 2008. Mahaney said the Amazon gadget could be one of the hottest gifts of holiday season.
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon. 
A lot of updates to college books are just tiny changes year over year and constitutes a whole new "edition" to be released. It's a waste of paper and a waste of cash-strapped college kids' money.
There's no reason that this reader couldn't be used to do just what I was thinking of. Though I always kind of envisioned it being more of a tablet PC so kids could take notes on it and save even more paper. Professors would also be able to "beam" homework assignments to the class via wireless in the room.
College kids could pay $1000 one time for the reader or tablet PC, and then the cost of a book could come down from the $65-$200 per book cost all the way to tens of dollars.
I was NOT going to pay 50 bucks per book (I needed 3 for the class in question) for even used books, or the 100 dollars for a new book. I told my parents 'forget it', I'll just go WITHOUT the books if I have to.
Even if I didn't, however..... it would be MUCH easier to just take notes on a computer, considering I can type 50 words a minute.
That's the main thing that's held me up from buying a Kindle -- until I can download and accurately reproduce high-resolution images in scientific and engineering texts, I can't really use it.
No way this is a good academic tool. Way too many problems.
1. Can you highlight or make notes in the margins?
2. What happens if thie POS breaks? Getting your books back on this DRM nightmare is not worth the hassles. What if it breaks the night before a test?
3. Any kid walks into my class with this pile of feces will likely get an F from me! People who buy Kindle's(what a retarded name) obviously lack reasoning skills.
OK. Listen here, Mr. "I Think I Know Everything." You obviously have never owned or used a Kindle. I like how armchair idiots constantly put the device down, just out of sheer ignorance and a lack of reasoning ability.
I purchased an Amazon Kindle and absolutely love it. So far, I have purchased 34 books ranging from current affairs, to politics, and to religion. Since purchasing the Kindle in June, I have been reading more than I ever did before. That is always a good thing IMO. Is the device perfect? No. Does the device deliver what it promises. Yes. Will there be another Kindle that addresses early adopter issues. Yes. Does the Kindle save me money compared to a physical book's price? Yes.
Please crawl back under the rock from where you came from. Your ignorance is showing...
The Kindle is a solution in search of a problem.
I see you can't claim that it is a useful academic tool.
The Kindle's only black and white right now while a good 80% of my books feature some color in them, whether they be some sort of graph or diagram of something. The resolution is also another issue. For novels and such, the Kindle will do fine. But with its limited resolution, the playback potential of highly detailed diagrams or graphs are going to be severely limited. And the note taking aspect's weird too (if you wanted an all-in-one), though I personally prefer to take notes seperately, but the highlighting would be a good feature to consider.
At the University of Hawaii, I had an Anthropology graduate student going for his PhD for my intro course, and he did his best to scan as many books as possible (legally) into PDFs for our class. Granted it was nice to be able to not worry about the books, playback on a huge laptop like mine sucked. And for whatever reason, I think I found out that I personally prefer reading actual books opposed to PDFs. I'm not sure if it's just the page flipping or something, but yeah lol.
So I don't know. We can barely type on our mobile devices (speed and accuracy wise), and the limitations on our input systems currently don't really show too much potential for the Kindle being a valuable college asset. Maybe for some language literature/reading or basic articles, but I don't think our technology/technical yield is there yet to make this efficient cost and productivity wise.
After the first semester of freshman year I did not buy a single textbook from the campus book store. If they switch to electronic books get ready to say goodbye to used textbooks available from fellow students. I don't care what platform they'll use (Amazon, Sony, or especially Apple) there will always be limits on personal sale. The paper textbooks are awful, but electronic ones would be a worse deal and so even more awful.
Lastly, you wouldn't save THAT much on the price. Those $150 books are $150 because of content, not printing costs. The ones that are available via ebook are not that much cheaper.
It may seem like a good idea if you haven't done college, but go a year of college and you'll discover quickly that it's quite inadequate.
Regardless of that, please do your research before making false claims. The Kindle *supports* note taking and highlighting.
I can't comment much on the price- but I would say that a fair bit of it does go towards printing costs. Some of the textbooks, especially the bigger ones, cost quite a bit to print. Either way, prices are high mostly because of the limited number of publishing houses- it's very close to a monopoly. With digital delivery, and I think this is one of the larger reasons why books will eventually be digitized, publishing houses can start to be cut out of the transaction. (Perhaps this fate will eventually be true for record labels as well?) Incidentally, the Kindle store on Amazon sells books at far cheaper prices than their paper relatives- it's only prudent to assume this to be true for textbooks.
With all that aside, the Kindle does one more very important thing for college students- reduces the act of carrying many books around. It may sound like laziness, but I know a lot of people who would gladly pay for a reading device to store all those books on in exchange for not having to lug them around. Even if the textbooks didn't drop in price.
On an ending note, digitizing opens the doors to piracy. One student might buy the book for the class and share it with the rest of the students (ignore any perceived technological limitations here- they can be sidestepped). This may be illegal, but it doesn't take away from the core usefulness of the device.
Oh, and by the way, I've never purchased, used, or seen a Kindle- this is an unbiased commentary.
And for the comment that says, "Those $150 books are $150 because of content, not printing costs.", that's only half true. If you look at what school's pay initially for a new set of books, you'll see the prices are similar. The school makes the money back by leasing the books out at a certain cost to students.
On the college level, this can't be done because of the fact that the books are updated every year. Unfortunately, it's not usually a mass overhaul because one isn't needed. I had a Sociology class that I had to buy an 8th Edition book to and the only difference between 7th and 8th Editions was 3 pages were added! For those lucky enough to find a 7th Edition, the professor provided copies of the missing pages.
A lot of fat could be trimmed off the price of those books once you eliminate printing costs, packaging, and transport. A lot of jobs would be lost in the process but it seems to be a fair trade off because it helps out the future leaders of this world and helps out the environment. All it would take is one, just one, book publisher to want to present a better image (and hopefully more loyalty from numerous colleges) to get this going into full swing.
The Kindle is a good idea, but it's not much more than an overpriced piece of crap. For $389 you could buy a laptop or tablet that would do all that and more. I would rather see my tax dollars go to paying for IT employees to run the network at the school than pouring money down the drain on textbooks or useless things like the Kindle.
We can land spacecraft on Mars and bomb the crap out of anyone we see fit, but we're no closer to the promise of an interactive classroom than we were 15 years ago. I'm sure we'll continue on this un-eco-friendly path until we're out of trees and then some genius will come up with an idea to put a laptop in the hands of every student.
It's not worth the aggravation.
For novels, it's fine. For anything requiring graphics, charts, etc, it sucks. So this marketing as a text book content holder is a non-starter unless there are fundamental changes to the device.
For example, if it could render PDF graphics, then it would work, but we all know how well it works with PDFs and graphics...
I hope they make the new models significant improvements on all levels. I'd also love an iPod or music player clip or holder on it.
without hitting the high end the ones about $350-$400 would be fine, just have to decide the configuration.
Truthfully I am looking at the Acer myself, I just need to see how easy adding a touchscreen would be.
-Built in touchscreen seems to be about $600 for the Gateway, if it even makes it to the US.
Amazon has the "idea", and there is a chance that they could push scholastic et al into the Ebook arena, which would at least HAVE them there.
Hardware wise as has been pointed out, the Kindle is fine for novels,and math/english books or others that can get by without that newfangled invetion called
"color"
As for the schoolbooks themselves, it is no secret that %99 of the "updates" are just a new cover and a update in the revision number .
If there IS an update it could actually be done on a subscription basis, charge $5 /$10 per course per semester and anything that changes can be sent right away (most useful for world events,law,medical,technical etc)
With time these will get better and better just like everything else. Someone pointed out that "it will never happen as there is too much money made on textbooks". Remember the textbook printer is not the same company as the publisher so if the publisher can avoid that expense, then they make more money, not less. Once some advancements are made, students will take to these just like iPods. Who in their right mind wouldn't love to avoid carrying around an extra 20 pounds of books in their backpack everyday?
You can then ask to see them, and they're shown to you in sequence and you click on the one you want...
I most like the ability to search your entire library for a keyword.
There's also a dictionary lookup for any line you're on - the default is Oxford American Dictionary.
It's far from perfect but I love mine and use it everyday since I also subscribe to NYTimes Latest News (99c/month),. BBC News online and MSNBC are accessible in Kindle format for free access (bookmarked in the Kindle before you get it).
The $360 is said to make up for not charging the user for the wireless 24/7 . I think the iPhone can be $60/mo ?
I also subscribe to Slate which gives me daily summaries of news from all the large newspapers and magazines while linking me to more detailed stories on the web, which I can then access pretty quickly if the page is mainly text and I want to know more.
This is done via Sprint EV-DO network, which is fast Internet, and can be used anywhere you cellphone works. Even in a car.
But if you like to read, outside the house, it's great to have a full library with you which you can read according to mood, and it remembers which page you were last on.
For textbooks without heavy graphics, it would be perfect -- depending on the cost of it though. Printing isn't needed so the costs shouldn't be so high for a book.
- by weshouck November 25, 2008 8:24 AM PST
- That is why I created www.StudentBookTrades.com. An easy way to find college textbooks that other students have already completed courses for. Students are automatically matched with each other to trade textbooks for classes they have completed. Trade, Swap, sell, or buy college textbooks from other students. Search the book database, contact the student at your home campus, city, state, or nationwide about the book and save money.
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