Another prestigious school is embracing Amazon's Kindle e-reader.
Princeton University has announced that it will start printing Kindle-edition textbooks this fall, according to a story in The Christian Science Monitor.
Princeton follows Yale, Oxford, and UC Berkeley in creating textbooks for the Kindle. In the United States, there are about 2,500 four-year universities, so Amazon still has a long way to go.
But the Kindle should appeal to university students better than other demographics.
I wrote this week that I was putting off buying a Kindle until I learn whether I can read digital books on the iPhone 3G, which goes on sale July 11. If the handheld enables me to read e-books well enough, I'll probably pass on the Kindle. The reason is simple: the iPhone gives me much more for my money.
Students, on the other hand, do so much reading that they may be thankful for a device that can help save their backs. Instead of schlepping 10 pounds of textbooks, the Kindle can hold about 200 titles and it weighs only 10 ounces.
Instead of having to thumb through pages, students can find text instantly with Kindle's search feature. It also allows a user to highlight text and make notes.
It's been a long time since I was in school, but I remember those long lines to buy books in September and January. Contrast that with Kindle's wireless service and the ability to download books off the Web from almost anyplace.
Back then, I would have been glad to buy a Kindle.
Tip: At Amazon, Kindles are advertised now for $359, but it might pay to check out eBay. Ina Fried, my colleague here at CNET News.com, paid $329 at the auction site this week and used Microsoft's Live Search cashback offer to get an additional 20 percent off. Total cost: $264.
Update 12:45 p.m.: I've learned that there's a strong bond between Princeton and Amazon. The company's founder, Jeff Bezos, is an alumnus of the university, class of 1986. I obtained the information from co-worker and former Tiger Caroline McCarthy (2006).
I wanted a Kindle. I was ready to buy a Kindle. The iPhone spoiled everything.
Amazon's Kindle sells for $365.
(Credit: Amazon)I'm an avid reader of digital books and for months I had my eye on the Kindle, the digital reader from Amazon, with its high-contrast screen and PC-less book downloads. Then Apple announced that the iPhone 3G goes on sale July 11.
I'm now in second-guess hell.
I know Apple has said nothing about offering an e-reading application for the new iPhone. But what happens if Steve Jobs later surprises us or some developer turns the iPhone into a whiz-bang electronic reader? I'll tell you what happens, my Kindle ends up on eBay.
I can imagine a slick iTunes bookstore, stocked full of titles that are easy to buy and download--sort of like Amazon.com. Even if Apple decides against getting into book sales, the upgraded iPhone will be open to developers. I'm betting one has already written an e-reader application.
There's a huge opportunity here for some enterprising developer. The person could write a reader application for the iPhone and then sign licensing deals with top publishers. The developer could sell digital books out of their own Web store. The pitch to the publishers would be: "I have the best way for you to get on the iPhone."
Of course, if Apple, which possesses complete control over the iPhone application development program, is planning something similar down the line, then a third-party e-reader application might not pass. Last January, Jobs voiced skepticism about e-readers, telling The New York Times that people "don't read anymore."
This to some is a good indication that he's interested.
The iPhone offers more value than the Kindle.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Regardless, all of this highlights the main problem with the Kindle: it's too much of a specialty device to appeal to a mass market audience. People want more value than the Kindle offers.
Sure, Amazon's the iPhone when it comes to providing a better reading experience. The Kindle features a 6-inch screen and E Ink technology, which is easier on the eyes than backlit displays. But the iPhone has all it needs to become a great digital-book reader: a 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display and 480-by-320 resolution.
I've read close to 20 books on my Palm Pilot TX and its 3.8-inch screen is plenty big enough.
Certainly, the Kindle's advantages as an e-reader aren't enough to trump the host of iPhone features: a phone on a new faster network, camera, video player, it holds photos, contacts, you can play games and there's the apps we don't know about yet. With the Kindle I get Web browsing and e-mail.
When you size up bang for the buck, it's all iPhone. The 16GB iPhone 3G costs $299. Of course that doesn't include network charges. The Kindle sells for $365 and that includes free wireless.
Brett Arends at The Wall Street Journal argues that if you read a lot, the Kindle can help you save money because e-books are cheaper than the paper kind. But he acknowledges that you have to buy 61 books before the device pays for itself.
Pacific Crest analyst Steve Weinstein predicts that global e-book sales at Amazon could reach $2.5 billion by 2012. If he's right, I'm thinking many of those sales won't be for the Kindle.
CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh and Tom Krazit contributed to this report.
Auctioneers at eBay were asking for more than double the retail price of Amazon's Kindle e-Reader on Friday.
A check of eBay at 2:45 p.m. PST showed prices for the e-Book reader went as high as $930. TechCrunch reported that a Kindle, which retails for $399, was bid up to $1,500 earlier in the week.
Has Amazon really discovered untapped consumer demand for digital-book readers?
The e-tailer, dabbling in electronics manufacturing for the first time, sold out of Kindles soon after introducing them last month. The device connects to the Web to download books--a feature that separates it from other e-readers that must sync to a PC to load a book.
Amazon has said it won't start delivering on new Kindle orders until after Christmas.
The company said it sold out of the Kindle in under six hours after the handheld went on sale. Some critics questioned how many Kindles Amazon had in stock. The company declined to say.
Despite much skepticism--and some downright harsh criticism--on the part of observers about the looks and marketability of Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader, consumers seem to be giving it the thumbs up.
The device, which the retailer started selling Monday for $399, quickly sold out, "due to heavy customer demand," according to Amazon. It will be in stock on December 7, and customers are instructed to order now "to reserve your place in line."
(Thanks to Engadget for bringing the sellout to our attention, and further noting that it's still unknown just how many devices Amazon has actually sold.)
With the Kindle, Amazon is hoping to succeed where hardware companies like Sony have failed. No e-book reader has ever been a market success.
The device weighs 10.3 ounces and uses "electronic ink" technology to mimic paper, with no backlight. The screen is black and white, for now anyway; Amazon executives have confirmed that E Ink, which manufactures the screen technology for Kindle as well as for other e-book readers like the Sony Reader, has a prototype of a color display.
The Kindle's battery will last several days to a week, company representatives have said, and, as shipped, it will hold about 200 books.
Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos believes the Kindle will be to reading what the iPod was to music, according to report published Sunday in the online edition of Newsweek magazine.
In what appears to be the Bezos' first interview about the company's upcoming electronic reader, Amazon's chief told the magazine that the Kindle can store up to 200 books and connect to the Web with the help of a system called Whispernet. Amazon, a company that has become synonymous with buying books online, will also offer Kindle owners a selection of more than 88,000 digital books at launch time, according to Newsweek.
Last week, CNET News.com reported that Bezos will unveil the Kindle at a media event in New York on Monday. An industry source said that the device will retail for $399 and receive automatic downloads from major newspapers, magazines and other publications. The source also said that Kindle features e-mail.
The e-mail service enables owners to receive word documents or PDF files that can be stored in the device's library just like a book, Newsweek reported. But what makes the handheld truly unique is that it downloads books off the Web--and it can do that "in less than a minute," Bezos told the magazine.
E-readers used to confine e-book buyers to wherever their computers were located. Digital books had to be first downloaded to a PC and then synced to an e-reader. Amazon is freeing them to buy wherever they can connect to the Web and this could lead to more impulse purchases.
Amazon is banking a lot on the e-reader. The retailer held up the release for more than a year in an attempt to deliver a superior product than predecessors, a source told CNET News.com. Previous attempts to convince the public to switch to digital books have largely failed.
To help spur demand, Amazon is pricing Kindle editions of New York Times best sellers as well as new releases for $9.99. Price is important because in the past, e-books have often cost the same as the paper kind and that stifled demand.
Newsweek offered few details about the Whispernet system, but did say that its based on the EVDO. A source told CNET that Sprint will provide the EVDO access.
EVDO will enable Kindle owners to hook up to the Web via a cellular network. That means way more coverage than having to look for a Wi-Fi hotspot.
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