NEW YORK — Online bookseller Amazon.com Inc. hopes a bigger, more expensive version of its Kindle electronic reading device can be a hit, and the company is aiming it in part at college students who are eager to save money on their textbooks.
Since the Kindle debuted in late 2007, it has jazzed many users and technophiles, but electronic readers from Amazon and rivals such as Sony Corp. are still in an early stage. Amazon has not disclosed Kindle sales figures, and the publishing industry has said e-books account for less than 1 percent of book sales.
Now, by offering the larger, $489 version of the Kindle DX and the smaller $359 Kindle 2, Amazon will try to open more avenues for digital versions of books and other content.
Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said that because the newest Kindle has a 9.7-inch screen, it will be better suited than the 6-inch regular Kindle at showing "complex layouts” in everything from cookbooks to travel guides.
Moving to college
The Kindle already had features that could aid textbook reading, like the ability to highlight and bookmark passages. Users could tap the Kindle’s typewriter-layout keyboard to look up words and annotate text. But besides a larger screen, the new version also offers more data storage — room for 3,500 books instead of 1,500 on the Kindle 2.
Three textbook publishers — Pearson PLC, Cengage Learning and John Wiley & Sons Inc. — have agreed to sell books on the device. Collectively, they publish 60 percent of all higher-education textbooks, Bezos said.
At least six universities have agreed to run Kindle pilot programs in the fall.
The schools will work with publishers to ensure assigned course textbooks are available in the Kindle format, and some colleges might even subsidize the cost of the e-book devices for their students.
Are newspapers next?
Whether portable, electronic versions of newspapers make sense will remain to be seen.
When the Kindle 2 was unveiled, NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin predicted that for e-book readers to reach broader audiences, the price would have to drop — something he didn’t expect to happen until must-haves such as textbooks became available.
Since the Kindle DX actually costs quite a bit more than the Kindle 2, "it makes sense to explore … other forms of distribution, such as subsidization by newspapers,” he said.
by the associated press
Since the Kindle debuted in late 2007, it has jazzed many users and technophiles, but electronic readers from Amazon and rivals such as Sony Corp. are still in an early stage. Amazon has not disclosed Kindle sales figures, and the publishing industry has said e-books account for less than 1 percent of book sales.
Now, by offering the larger, $489 version of the Kindle DX and the smaller $359 Kindle 2, Amazon will try to open more avenues for digital versions of books and other content.
Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said that because the newest Kindle has a 9.7-inch screen, it will be better suited than the 6-inch regular Kindle at showing "complex layouts” in everything from cookbooks to travel guides.
Moving to college
The Kindle already had features that could aid textbook reading, like the ability to highlight and bookmark passages. Users could tap the Kindle’s typewriter-layout keyboard to look up words and annotate text. But besides a larger screen, the new version also offers more data storage — room for 3,500 books instead of 1,500 on the Kindle 2.
Three textbook publishers — Pearson PLC, Cengage Learning and John Wiley & Sons Inc. — have agreed to sell books on the device. Collectively, they publish 60 percent of all higher-education textbooks, Bezos said.
At least six universities have agreed to run Kindle pilot programs in the fall.
The schools will work with publishers to ensure assigned course textbooks are available in the Kindle format, and some colleges might even subsidize the cost of the e-book devices for their students.
Are newspapers next?
Whether portable, electronic versions of newspapers make sense will remain to be seen.
When the Kindle 2 was unveiled, NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin predicted that for e-book readers to reach broader audiences, the price would have to drop — something he didn’t expect to happen until must-haves such as textbooks became available.
Since the Kindle DX actually costs quite a bit more than the Kindle 2, "it makes sense to explore … other forms of distribution, such as subsidization by newspapers,” he said.
by the associated press
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