A New Type of Book

I'm not sure if many people have heard of the new Amazon Kindle that was introduced November of 2007. I found out about it a couple of months ago and I thought it is actually a pretty neat little device so I decided to write my blog post about it. Basically, the Amazon Kindle is an electronic book (e-book) device launched in the United States by Amazon.com. It uses an electronic paper display and can download content via the internet. Which means that you don't have to have a computer to use it.

"Kindle provides a crisp black-and-white screen that resembles the appearance and readability of printed paper."
- Amazon.com

I think that this has a lot of potential in the world today, but where I think a large target (which is possibly overlooked) is in college universities. The Amazon Kindle is selling for $399.99 which is a lot of money, especially to a struggling college student. However, when you look at the cost of books alone, you can easily spend that much (and possibly more) per semester. Now imagine if you only had to pay around $20 for an "e-book," that would save many college students money. A successful business move for Amazon would be to get the Kindle into the hands of college students.

Now I'm sure it isn't just that simple. I'm sure text book publishers love price gouging students every semester by putting out a "new edition" of a book and I'm sure book stores love telling us students that they can't sell back a book because it's an old edition. One of the first steps Amazon would need to take is to contact publishers or whoever owns the content of the text books and let Amazon sell an "e-version" of the book online. This would allow students to pay a reduced price since they already own a Kindle. This whole process is very similar to how Apple's iTunes their music in the iTunes library for 99 cents per song. Eventually other record labels noticed the success of iTunes, and today iTunes is one of the top places to get music in the world.

The Amazon Kindle isn't perfect yet and I'm sure the price will still come down as it evolves. Their are also other competitors for it that could stand in its way. Maybe one day though instead of a college student carrying three or four books, they'll be carrying their Amazon Kindle.