The big news in nerd world this morning is that Amazon unveiled a brand new kind of Kindle — designed bigger for easier reading of newspapers and textbooks. The Wall Street Journal actually leaked this news on Monday, including an interesting note for Portlanders: Reed College will be part of a six school pilot program for the new device. According to Reed chief technology officer Martin Ringle, next year all students in certain programs (probably humanities and social sciences) will get a Kindle 2 or DX if they so desire. “We’re thinking this will be a watershed device and that if we’re involved in this pilot program, we’ll be getting a front row seat to see how good or bad it is,” says Ringle.
The bigger Kindle retails for $489 and while Ringle is under order not to disclose any of the financial workings of Reed’s partnership with Amazon, he says students who receive Kindles next year won’t have to shell out any money from their own pockets. Apparently Amazon is willing to invest in Reedies as the kind of hip kids who are perfect for viral marketing? Anyway, this is certainly another step in our peaceful progress toward a Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey vision of the future, where there are no books and teachers and friendly holograms.
The manager of Reed’s bookstore says an average Reedie spends between $500-$1000 on textbooks every year. Much of the high cost of textbooks is wrapped up in high printing fees, so while students will lose whatever tuppence they can normally get from reselling textbooks, the hope is that e-books will work out to be way cheaper overall. “This is a device that could enable you to put every book you use in your college career in one place,” says Ringle, who points out that buying fewer paper textbooks will help the environment, too. Ringle did not, however, factor in the environmental impact of countless textbook bonfires Reedies are certain to set now that finals are wrapping up and free Kindles are on their way.
Even though I may be known around here for cranky, longwinded and negative comments (if I’m known at all), I would like to take the opportunity here to just say that I have a complete Kindleboner (<-with umlauts, probably German for pedophile); I am looking forward to a future where this thing replaces all books and most print media, and little kids are given one of these as they start elementary school, wherever they are in the world, preloaded with every book or important written whatever that is in the public domain, in whatever language they speak, and they can add on to it over time, and if they lose it, no problem since it's all backed up, including their highlighting, embedded notes, etc..... man, I can't even gush over this thing properly.
Colin, I believe “A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer; a Propædeutic Enchiridion in which is told the tale of Princess Nell and her various friends, kin, associates, &c.” is the proper name of the device you’re looking forward to.
This is a terrible idea, due to the DRM on the device. Any textbook distributed will be restricted in that manner, and at that point sharing the book amongst students and selling used copies are verboten. Stallman’s The Right to Read was prophetic. The Kindle’s an awesome device, and part of it is the future, but the DRM restrictions and lack of first-sale doctrine protections make it useless in a University setting.
Paper, printing, and binding costs average about $2.00 per book. While it might be better for the environment not to print books, the cost of e-books, at least e-textbooks, will never be as low cost as one might hope. Royalties, copyediting, permission costs, photo research, indexing, composition, covers (assuming we still want them), electronic file creation, advertising, and instructors’ resources all need to be factored into the equation.
Ann, even if all you say is true, and the textbook is on Kindle for only $2 less, it still provides a benefit since it can be owned digitally for the foreseeable future, with highlighting and notation intact on Amazon’s servers. People won’t have to lug around and store fat textbooks, and no one will have to pay the shipping costs associated with palette after palette of heavy textbooks. And it is way better for the environment, and eventually, as the technology gains mass currency, the costs can be spread across more and more users and will thus eventually lower (not to mention the increased market competition when publishing/shipping costs are greatly reduced). Did I mention how giddy I am about this?
Ann is right, the number is about $1.50. None of the people mentioned in the publishing world, the authors included, are getting rich. The play is eliminating the market for used textbooks. The challenge is that DRM (copy protection) hackers are concentrated in universities.
I just wanted to say that personally i didn’t know what a kindle was til today, it might me helpful to just have this lightweight thingy and not kill your back everyday going to school. like i do myself but i love the smell and feeling of books and i don’t understand why anyone would want books to go away I know books are expensive trust me i know but for the past year ive been using Cheapest Textbooks they have used textbooks online really cheap and you can get your money back by just selling them back to them. I like that fact, i hope you check them out and keep reading the classic original books!!
Thanks!
I used to just buy used textbooks online to save money. Plus I prefer being able to use it at any time. Check out http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com.
If you want to buy books. i would advise you to go online and search the prices for these books using services like http://www.thecollegetextbooks.net. It is better than going for standalone stores. As you can save on lot of money using them.
Getting up to 97% saving is not a bad idea for students. And students always look for the cheapest shopping while not compromising with the quality. So, I tried a lot of online bookstores including the top level like amazon, ebay etc but I got my attention at http://textbooks.org/ . Believe me, they are really the cheapest I have ever found. I saved almost 40%.
As they say, if you have bulk requirement about textbooks then I am sure you will make saving up to 97%. IF you don’t believe, try it out once and I am sure that you will post your comment at here.
Thanks Doug,
I was searching for the cheapest places to find textbooks and came at this story. After reading the story, I found your comment and tried http://textbooks.org
You are very true that they are the cheapest. Really, amazing. Just searched with my ISBN and got a list of books. I selected the cheapest one and that’s it. There was no issue with quality and prompt response from textbooks.org team.
I appreciate Yous effort Doug!!!