IT Professionals

The Kindle – With A Reason For Ownership This Time

Posted by on Aug 26, 2008 | 5 Comments

I never totally understood the value of owning a Kindle. Spending a couple of hundred dollars for a device that allows you to buy and read books is simply stupid from my perspective…unless it is actually saving the user money in the long term. As I discovered here, the idea for the Kindle 2.0 to be released along side new college textbooks makes a lot of sense. Why? Simple – textbooks are a huge expense for struggling college students.

So to provide a device for a few hundred dollars and a means of providing textbooks, without wasting paper, could be a real success. And the promise of a badly needed price drop and with any luck, less dependence on Amazon as well would definitely be a step in the right direction.

What do you think? Could the move of the Kindle 2.o going along with the release of upcoming textbooks be a strong enough reason for students to make the purchase? Hit the comments and share your perspective.

  • Daniel

    Textbooks in electronic form offer several advantages, including: easier to carry several of them, searching, instant cross-referencing, and potential cost savings.

    These advantages apply to non-textbooks as well, but most people don’t read enough for them to matter. If you are a heavy reader, or a light reader who travels a lot, then the Kindle is a good value. However, some people just like the look and feel of real books, and for them the Kindle will never make sense.

  • sc

    i think its a fine idea of using e-textbooks, and very smart on the part of amazon to make something institutional and not just a status symbol.

    it should also help in writing papers when quoting, bibliographing and footnoting books already digitized.

    I really would like to see very rare and expensive books digitized so they will be available to the general public. there are a number of books i wished were digitized and indexed.

  • http://www.scoutcampfire.com Ken Spry

    I have been a long time reader of electronic books. I think text books are a natural fit, but I am afraid there will be little to no cost savings for the end user. Popular fiction electronic copies of new books are the same price as Hardbacks. When the book moves to paperback there is a corresponding price break in the electronic format.

    I would hope there is a price break and a corresponding way to sell used text books.

  • http://www.sqlservercentral.com Steve Jones

    The idea of the Kindle is great. I read constantly, 50+ books a year, and traveling with this books, or just keeping track of them is a pain. I have books by the bed, in the car, laptop bag, etc. Kindle puts them all in one place.

    Thinking back to college, it’s a great idea, having all my books together in one place, no more forgetting the one I need. The issue there is notes and annotations. Not sure how that works on the Kindle.

    I’ve been considering one, making it easy for me to keep books with me and grab a new one without going to the store, however at $300+, it’s pricey. I might make that up in a year or two of reduced book costs, but I’m not sure. I often buy paperbacks, so the cost of the book is a wash.

    Amazon has a great opportunity and they’re blowing it for short term profits. Lower the cost, even if you require XX purchases, or bundle things up. If they gave me even 10 books with the thing, I’d probably just snap it up. Or do a book club like cost where you need to buy XX a year, but get it down to $150-200 and you can corner the market.

  • Randy Allen

    It’s a great idea. I see students everyday carrying backpacks loaded down with 30 pounds of books and laptops. Yes, they are expensive, but don’t look for a huge price cut, regardless of how much money can be saved in printing and binding. Textbooks should also come to market sooner, since they are submitted in electronic format, it should be a no brainer in formatting them for Kindle. They need to work on getting graphics and the ability to annotate text, because let’s face it, a Kindle will look pretty silly with yellow highlighter all over it.