RSSReport: Amazon looks to substitute textbooks with Kindle
By Tim Conneally | Published August 26, 2008, 12:18 PM
Fresh analysis indicates that Amazon's popular Kindle device may eventually serve a second purpose: as a provider of college texts and other materials for students. For that reason, Amazon may be marketing the device towards students.
For many college students, a walk between classes is the equivalent of ROTC basic training. The reason, of course, is textbooks. They're too numerous, they're too heavy, and they're too expensive.
McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Tim Bueneman told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Friday that Amazon's second version of the Kindle may be marketed to college students with those precise grievances. Behold: a single device that weighs a meager 10.3 ounces and has the capacity to hold every textbook you could possibly need.
Since the e-reader's launch, by some estimates, Amazon has shipped 240,000 units, and Citigroup's Mark Mahaney believes the device will end 2008 with sales around 378,000. These numbers, however, are purely speculative, as Amazon has not released any sales figures yet. Further, the retailer has said next to nothing about Kindle design updates, speaking out only to dismiss everything that is not an official statement as rumor.
Amazon has dealt in college textbooks for years already, a market generating an estimated $5.5 billion annually in the US alone, according to the National Association of College Stores.
Judging from existing market breakdowns, 32.7% of a textbook's cost comes from paper, printing, and editorial costs; 10.2% goes to college store operations and related taxes; 11.6% goes to retail personnel; and 1% covers freight. If published in the all-digital format, as much as 55.6% of textbook production costs could be reduced, and 100% of the physical resources would be eliminated.
In the 2006-2007 school year, the average new textbook cost $53. Stripping out the previously mentioned expenses would drive down the average to $23.54.
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch suggested this morning that the real benefit to Amazon would be in allowing third parties to manufacture their own devices that ran Kindle software and accessed the Kindle Marketplace. Each manufacturer, he posits, could competitively market their own designs and ultimately drive sales of Kindle books up.
Marrying Bueneman's information on a Kindle college marketing push with Arrington's third-party ideas, one begins to contemplate the benefits of a purpose-oriented, university-branded Kindle that can only be purchased in campus bookstores.
If one thing drives journalists to dream, it's a less-than-transparent company. Amazon may have not only adopted Apple's iTunes business model for the Kindle, but also Cupertino's predilection for nondisclosure that keeps the public wondering.
The average textbook costs $53? My average for my two year college was at the least $90, and in several few classes I had to buy two books.
I'd be all over this if I were to go back and had the option.
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"For many college students, a walk between classes is the equivalent of ROTC basic training. The reason, of course, is textbooks. They're too numerous, they're too heavy, and they're too expensive."
What?
In how many colleges, are you required, or is it even advantageous, to bring a textbook to class where the majority of the material is presented in lecture form?
And how does having a textbook available in electronic form aid taking notes? Or noting multiple sections simultaneously as you can do in a real book.
But the best cited reason is the weight of the books? Give me a break.
Just another solution in search of a problem.
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In my undergraduate studies, many textbooks were over $100 each and only necessary for a single semester's work. In total, four years worth of textbooks cost me well over $6,000.
I would have much rather spent that on a slick piece of gear, wouldn't you?
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Maybe he didn't make it that far in school? [smiles]
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Copy&Paste...... [rollseyes]
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I agree. This is a great idea.
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I will agree that there is no need to bring a book to class as the point of attending lecture is to learn something that wasn't in the book. What if a student wants to study in the downtime between classes? It is hard to study if you don't have the book. Maybe the sorority girl who would prefer carrying around a one pound e-book reader instead of ten pounds of books is being petty but her money is good as anybody else's. It's hard to deny that there isn't a market for an affordable, lightweight, and easy to use e-book reader for college textbooks. Is their solution perfect? No, but they have come a lot closer than their predecessors.
I would also disagree that the weight is the best cited reason. Even a 10% discount off the price of a paper book would easily cover the cost of a Kindle over the course of a 4 year education. If Amazon can get the price below $100 the break even point is less than a year which would make it a very compelling selling point to most college students.
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Carrying 10 pounds of books.
Right! A great fantasy.
Most of those books are not texts but additional resources! And they will not be available electronically! So instead, your answer is to simply add another device to carry.
This debate is so mixed up with wacko generalizations its not funny.
Science and math books generally do not need additional resources to carry. On the other hand, general liberal arts subjects normally are dependent on outside studies and resources - be they literature or journal articles or other resources.
You normally do not take a science or math book to class.
Additional resources, if needed, you carry asn they will not be available in electronic form.
Either way, the benefit of an electronic reader is minimal - and limited.
And don't for a minute think that the textbooks - one of the most lucrative publishing ventures is going to forgo DRM for a minute! They depend upon updating editions at least every two years simply to obsolete old version and stimulate the market!
All of this wishful thinking does not change fundamental useage and cost structures.
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I think having the textbooks accessible on a laptop or tablet would be way more practical for taking notes and actually doing work.
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In theory yes. In real world practice I haven't seen very many students that used their laptops for anything that couldn't have been done just as effectively with pen and paper. I know several universities have shut off wi-fi in the lecture hall over even banned use of laptops in lecture entirely because they found that the majority of students were distracting other students in the classes.
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Its a good idea and will save money and trees in the long run.
I remember high school and how much of a pain it was to make sure that I had enough paper and pens and get the correct textbook. I only ever got a locker in grade 12. Though, they have more lockers now in my old school since the big expansion after I graduated.
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Kindle: a solution in search of a problem.
This is not how students study. Often multiple books are open at the same time, especially when writing a paper.
Books are a mature, perfected technology that have been around for hundreds of years for good reason.
Bezos has psychotic delusions of grandiosity if he thinks his generation 1.0 device will replace textbooks.
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I would disagree. The average college student spends in excess of $1000 per year. Particularly so students attending state colleges and universities textbooks definitely are a significant percentage of their cost of attendance. I know at the university I went to as an undergrad actually stated on the cover of any course reader that the school published how many dollars went to royalties to the authors and what their publication costs were. Obviously the breakdown depended upon what the authors demanded for their royalty but it wasn't uncommon for the publication costs to exceed 30% of the cost of the book. The publication costs of an e-book would be a fraction of that of paper even with the cost of the reader amortized over the life of the unit.
The ability to review multiple texts and one time isn't much of a selling point of a paper book to many people. Particularly for K-12 education most students write very few papers. This is sad but true. Even in college many lower division courses frequently only have one or two books assigned for course reading.
The Kindle certainly isn't perfect but to say that there is no demand for a cheaper, lighter alternative to lugging around dozens of books is being a bit naive.
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I have had bad results using a hi-lighter on a kindle.
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blond?
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