The mystery behind what Amazon will announce on Wednesday has taken another twist. The WSJ is reporting that Amazon will, indeed, announce a University textbook specific model with a larger screen at the press conference later this week. So where did this come from and what else can we expect?
One Lev Gonick from Case Western Reserve University has confirmed that Amazon will be providing the university with larger screen Kindles next school year. Those Kindles will be distributed for those taking chemistry, computer science and some freshman seminar with content pre-installed. According to Gonick who is the CIO, CWR will be comparing experiences between students who have the Kindle and those who are using standard textbooks. Gonick also stated that the new Kindle will have a “fully functional Web browser.” Whether or not this is the Kindle DX with the 9.7″ screen remains to be seen.
Five other universities have also been indicated for the upcoming university specific Kindle. Those include Pace, Princeton, Reed, Darden School at the University of Virginia and Arizona State.
Arthur Sulzberger Jr., New York Times Co. Chairman is said to be sharing the stage with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the event on Wednesday which quasi-confirms the rumors of a newspaper specific Kindle.
And in case you didn’t know, Hearst Corp. is investing in a start up that’s developing an e-reader to compete with Amazon’s Kindle. News Corp. is also looking at investing in another e-reader competitor. The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News will be seeing an 8.5- x 11-inch device this coming summer as a trial launch from Plastic Logic.
And the rabbit hole gets even deeper.
via WSJ
wow bye bye carrying heavy text books…
At our website, EtextbookReaders.com, we have information and reviews of text book reader devices. This is a growing market segment and we think textbook readers will be popular with students fed up with lugging dead trees around. We’re waiting to see what the new Amazon Kindle announcement will bring.
Still want to know when we’ll have free text books subsidized by ads. Maybe the digital form will make this a reality.
wow universities will have to get out of the stone ages.. it is about time…. maybe now in bio they will start teaching with videos like that harvard cell video.. http://www.studiodaily.com/main/searchlist/6850.html
Kindle w/ $399 Price Point
TextBooks Half Off Standard Pricing
Cheap newspaper subscription services
RSS on the go
It really makes me want to go to college. This will be great for students if they can pay less for text books.
It makes me want to call my college back up and ask if I can come back and do a second degree for half price!
I’ve been waiting for Amazon to do this for a while now. My girlfriend goes to college every week day with 2-4 incredibly heavy books. I’ve asked her several times if she would buy a Kindle instead and she said she would, that is as long as all of her textbooks were available for it (currently they are not). Hopefully this announcement will bring many more textbooks to the Kindle and eventually students won’t have to carry around such heavy books.
So much for the papermills eh…
I’m looking forward for the day when ebook readers will be the norm on schools too. I hate to see my seven years old daugther taking so many heavy books.
gotta love the image.
Call me pessimistic but I just can’t see this working. First of all, many universities run their own bookstore and the Kindle would most likely cut into their profits. That is, the bookstores buy back books at the end of the semester from students at relatively low values and resell them the following semester. You can’t resell digital content.
The only way I see this working is if the universities make the Kindle a required technology for certain classes and the they receive a portion of all on-campus sales (Kindles and ebooks).
The Kindle is a total joke. I am not paying Amazon one cent for DRM books that I can’t resell once I’m done with them. It’s destined to be a niche product despite what all the astroturfers on these boards say.
And if the student breaks or “loses” the device? In other words, I wonder how much the student pays (the school? amazon?) for insurance…
What about colour images and diagrams? Does that this mean that the next kindle will come with a colour screen?
where is the bloody wifi?
So can someone please tell me what makes this better than books to a typical student who does not have extra money to waste.
I’m a college student and I’d like to know why would this be more attractive than me just buying the book.
Is it sturdy; students throw the bags around can it survive a good fall?
Can you resell the DRM TextBook files after you take the class; or can they be transferred to other kindles?
What happens if you lose it; do you have to buy all the textbook files over again ?
Will the price of the kindle, plus the book files be competitive to just buying the books ?
Will it be spill proof?
Can I loan out a book file from it to someone else with a kindle like you can normal textbooks ?
Can it fit in a backpack and not fill awkward due to shape ?
Can we be sure this wont open up a new monopoly to Amazon with Textbooks if this takes off ?
Will it be in color sometimes things in some text books have to be in color for them to be understood ?
Can you write on the screen and it appear in the books like a way to highlight important notes and info in books.
I completely agree with your point of view. I was thinking the same exact things when I read this article. In theory it would be nice not to have to carry around all those books. But at the same time, there are no color images, you can’t write or highlight (which is an important part of the learning process for me), and if you break it (which would be hard to do with an actual book), you’re SOL.
I wish more textbooks would be distributed in standard formats like PDF, which can easily be converted and used on a Tablet PC. A Tablet PC with a similar form factor to the Kindle would make more sense.
gotta love the image.
Next thing we need is a Kindle for travel guides! I work at a travel store, and the people are crazy about their Kindles, and also about having light weight luggage. If you’re backpacking for 6 months, you don’t want to carry around 5 different lonely planet guides if you can have it all on a kindle..
hmmm…. it’s from one of the famous cartoon, but I dont remember its