New Kindle rumor revived, this time with a collegiate twist

Just last month we heard that Amazon could be cooking up a new pair of Kindles for the future, and now we're seeing another report that adds a bit of legitimacy to the claim. According to McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Tim Bueneman, "there are already several new, improved versions of the Kindle in the works," and while an MP3 version (saywha?) isn't in the cards, one with an "improved interface" is. Furthermore, Amazon could be aiming at least one of the new Kindle(s) at college students, though no details were given on what exactly that meant. Wait, do university attendees even read anymore?

[Via CNET]

[phoenixavatar2 @ Aug 25th 2008 2:22AM]

If it's a Kindle targeted at college students then I would assume it's one designed to partner with textbook manufacturers to provide Kindle versions of their textbooks. I really hope it's true, I would love to not have my backpack filled with books, but at the same time, the books would have to be offered at a steep discount, below how much you'd pay for a used book to make it worth it.

[DrXym @ Aug 25th 2008 9:16AM]

Kindle might be a great device if it was either cheap or was an open device not tied to one provider properly supported common file formats. But Amazon are trying to have their cake and eat it too by charging the earth and locking you into their service. I seriously don't understand why anyone would buy it. When the device dies or the service gets canned, you may discover all your precious DRM'd books went with it too. You can't even sell on books when you are done with them. Sony Reader isn't much better off.

eBooks demonstrate what happens when an industry can't agree on a proper standard. If they'd implemented a decent book standard with preferably passive DRM (i.e watermarking) which was independent of store or device, then the sales would skyrocket. Users would trust the format since they can buy books anywhere, back them up however they like and read them anywhere. Yes there would be piracy but there is already piracy so what would it matter? Watermarking would let them track down the culprits far easier than today too. Instead the industry has devolved into competing clans and fiefdoms fighting over scraps. The same will happen to digital movies if they don't adopt a standard.

Surely someone must be able to produce a e-ink device that properly renders documents in all the common formats? Okay, favour your own store if you must, but make the device good at other formats, and make your format open and attractive to licence with favourable terms. Even today I could buy a PDA for less than either Kindle or Sony Reader and make it read all the common formats. Where is the impediment for these devices?

[TVGenius @ Aug 25th 2008 10:20AM]

And don't count on the books being much cheaper. Unless somehow Amazon can completely overthrow the price-fixing in place now, texts will still be outrageous. My wife is taking ONE class at our community college and the two books together are over $230. Tuition for the course (Biology) is $168. Something's wrong here.

[britboyj @ Aug 25th 2008 2:23AM]

Whatever, college e-books will still be overpriced, pains in the ass that now, since they're e-books, you can't sell back for 25% of the price you overpaid for and barely ever looked at, then rather than shipping and actual material being excuses for the price, they'll come up with some BS excuse about file size and compression.

The College Textbook industry needs to die. Now. Filesharing might do it, eventually.

[Colin Potter @ Aug 25th 2008 2:57AM]

I imagine you could re-sell the kindle loaded with e-books for atleast a fraction of your money back

[rcast1986 @ Aug 25th 2008 2:27AM]

Hey, let me carry all my books in one thin, light form factor, and not only will I buy a Kindle, but I'll actually read said books.

...assuming the electronic versions came at a slight discount, that is.

[CaramelZappa @ Aug 25th 2008 2:43AM]

Slight?

[CaramelZappa @ Aug 25th 2008 2:41AM]

Sounds good to me. I just started college, and I just payed more than the cost of a kindle for one semester. If I got a "college" kindle and was able to get all my textbooks for much cheaper I'd do it. Ebooks can be much cheaper since they don't use up physical resources, so providing the textbook companies aren't too greedy, I'm in.

[Chris W @ Aug 25th 2008 3:02AM]

I think they are talking about one that has reference stuff built in and is designed to assist more with school work. This actual makes a lot of sense. If you think about it college Textbooks are becoming increasingly online affairs with only the lecture and some practice problems in the book. Study material, practice tests, formula proffers (math, logic, chem, etc), utilities, etc are now coming on a CD or available on a website.
If you can get a good kindle with a large crisp screen that can take a beating, it would be far more worth while then a simple text book. You could literally access all of that information and extra curriculum and tools at any time. Combine a good bookmarking, appendix, search, and reference system and you just killed the big bulky text books.
No more walking to your car between classes to exchange your 10 lbs or more of books, folders, notebooks, binders, and other material between classes.
Further this will drop the price of books, despite what britboyj says. They will be able to more easily finance the hundreds of thousands of dollars they spend on all of these extra online and digital tools. Plus everyone will have to buy a new copy, they make no money when used copies are traded and hence must charge many many times more for the original to make up for it. Just look at the Print On Demand textbook market. They cost a fraction of the price mostly because there is little resell market for it.

[RapidKiller @ Aug 25th 2008 3:18AM]

I can only really see this working if the books are cheap, like $30, verse the $90 I would spend on getting them off ebay or a really cheap used bookstore. man the cheapest book i bought last year was $85, used off of ebay.

[ntlam @ Aug 25th 2008 3:21AM]

why not just give e book in pdf and view in on EEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[Rob @ Aug 25th 2008 3:24AM]

I hope along with the new version(s) of the Kindle, they release it in Canada with access to Whispernet.

[wyszkow @ Aug 25th 2008 4:37AM]

When european version and european books?

[Pep @ Aug 25th 2008 4:42AM]

I would buy a kindle immediately if it was GSM instead of EVDO. Using EVDO they are ruling out countless of international users who can't use EVDO because t doesn't exist in their countries... I think a GSM/3G/HSDPA version of the kindle would be great.

[Ron @ Aug 25th 2008 4:55AM]

Yes, Lets have all our textbooks be electronic. Then they can revoke our ability to read them after the class is done. You didn't buy the book - you only bought a license to read the book for 3 months + 2 weeks (2 weeks more than a class takes). after that - no books for you.

Give me paper - I paid a lot for those book, I want them for reference.

[Veraxus @ Aug 25th 2008 12:39PM]

Kindle doesn't remotely delete your content ever, nor does it support it. I'm fairly certain Amazon wouldn't allow, support, or condone such a ridiculous licensing structure.

[Jamie @ Aug 25th 2008 5:44AM]

College Shmollege, I want it to be released in England.

[JSB @ Aug 25th 2008 7:26AM]

college students ....hmmm, a Kindle that can display a beer pong table?

[Ogo @ Aug 25th 2008 7:43AM]

This is the process of text books in Canada. A company makes the text book, sets a high price, sends a rep. with a free copy and they try to persuade the professor or uni to use their book. Some professors think of the students and choose a good but not too expensive text but most professors don't care. Then they change the version number often in hopes you cannot resell them.

I do not know how the industry works in other countries but I would think an e-text in Canada would not be offered at a great discount.

[DrXym @ Aug 25th 2008 9:26AM]

Hah, most of my professors would try to make you buy *their* books for the courses. More often than not, the books were pretty useless and horribly expensive to boot. Professors might think they're the authority in their fields but more often than not they are no such thing and were pretty lousy writers too. Only a couple of professors recommended books they didn't write and unsurprisingly these are the books I still have in my collection these many years later.

[Matt @ Aug 25th 2008 9:29AM]

Same way in the US, the versions change every year, even though in most cases the professors tell you it doesn't matter what version you have cause it's all the same shit. I had one book where the only difference between the version I had and the previous version was that the ORDER OF THE CHAPTERS WAS DIFFERENT.

God, I'm so glad I'm done with college. It was truly a pleasant experience to drop 500-600 bucks a semester on books, of which half would never even be opened more than once.

Also, that CD shit they love to pull now is awesome. You get a CD with your book, and once the CD is opened, you can't return it and sometimes the bookstore won't even buy it back. It's totally unnecessary, as the CD contents could almost always be replaced by a web based app.

Epic fail.

[Marq @ Aug 25th 2008 10:12AM]

@ Matt...

And the CD thing is even greater when it's included on a PAPERBACK TEXTBOOK. So wait...I can't take the cd out of the case in hopes of NOT cracking it, but as soon as I open the packet, then I can't take the $10,000 (plus or minus a dollar or two) book back?! Are you kidding me?!

I had a consitutional law book ($250) that was a frickin paper back with a CD in it. the CD cracked in it's little CD condom so I had to get wise to get the book back to them...I slit the plastic and glued the CD back together, then I glued the plastic back together.

By the way, if you bought that book after I sold it back...

Sorry.

[eddy @ Aug 25th 2008 9:01AM]

I'm just glad that the "new Kindle" rumors are still out there and haven't fizzled out. I'm holding off on purchasing one, hoping that we'll see something concrete instead of just rumor. Don't want to buy one only to have news of the new and improved model surface the following week.

Of course, the whole textbook thing does nothing for me anyway since I've already gone through all my courses in which I'd need a textbook; now it's just film-related classes for me that require more tech than text.

[Jay Evans @ Aug 25th 2008 9:35AM]

What this will mean is more "Professor" written text books for courses. They can now bypass that whole finding a publisher thing.

There isn't a PHD out there that doesn't think they could have done it better or that a lot of the commercial text books are just WRONG (in their opinion).

[Desiree @ Aug 25th 2008 10:20AM]

What about engineers that have to use their books during tests? Also, most engineers keep their text books for the PE. I doubt they'll let you bring this thing into the PE.

[Peppie @ Aug 25th 2008 10:39AM]

Hmmm...make it cheaper and open up the formats and you got a winner...assuming the books are cheap too

[ackthbbft @ Aug 25th 2008 11:59AM]

"Furthermore, Amazon could be aiming at least one of the new Kindle(s) at college students, though no details were given on what exactly that meant."

If that means downloading cheaper versions of their textbooks, I'd be all over it. If this could beat even the used book prices, they'd have a huge hit on their hands.

[Veraxus @ Aug 25th 2008 12:31PM]

I've already got one (and I absolutely LOVE it), but if one of those new versions comes with a color display or includes a touch-screen for note-taking, I'm sold.

[KM Ford @ Aug 25th 2008 12:31PM]

Why not make ebooks device independent? My laptop takes up enough space--why do I want to shell out for another screen? If I buy an e-book, I should be able to read it any way I want--even on my phone.

[Mike @ Aug 25th 2008 12:41PM]

I agree with the user who made the first post:

If you can make the kindle work with all the textbooks I need in college (a tall order, no doubt), then sign me up! Those digital copies would have to be much cheaper than the text versions since I can still buy those on Amazon's used book section for a steep discount, but it would be amazing to have one small device that can store all my ginormous textbooks.

[Jason @ Aug 25th 2008 3:09PM]

DrXym hit it on the head with his comments regarding standards for ebooks. Do we really want multiple competing DRM standards for ebooks similar to what we now have with the DRM on audio files?

Even though my friends have ridiculed me to no end for my interest in something like the Kindle, it is a really compelling idea, IF (and only if) they will move to a standard multi-device format and stop trying to emulate Apple with their approach.

I should be able to re-sell my Kindle books, back them up, or read them on a PC if I wish. Otherwise the price of the books has to be so dirt cheap that it makes it a virtual rental price for getting access to the content.

[BirdofPrey @ Aug 25th 2008 3:21PM]

If Amazon had a deal that would let you get $700 worth of teextbooks in a light package for a discount then they would probably lose profits when the demand crashes their servers.

[Alex @ Aug 25th 2008 3:39PM]

That's very interesting, since hearing about the possibility of Kindle-textbooks gave me the first faint shimmer of a desire for the product.

[jc @ Aug 26th 2008 4:13AM]

im taking a course at ucla. its one of those pilot programs where they are trying to fully digitize the textbooks and materials. The electronic version of the textbook was actually 40% cheaper than the printed version. Selling ebooks to students may or may not work. for reference purposes or light usage, it might work, however, if the student needs to dissect the material, the printed version is still better. You cannot compare 6 to 7 books at once like books on a desk. you would need to filp back and forth between digital documents. If you need to draw diagrams, pictures or tables to help you learn, e versions cannot do that yet. in order for the kindle or any ebook device to be successful in the education field, it needs to have an interface that allows the user to deal with multiple documents easily with a fairly flexible note taking function. the publishers will also need to develop their ebooks specifically for digital use so it may take advantage of the functionality and flexibility of the computer. so back to my class, 95% of the students ended up printing out all the materials including the textbook. the e version of the book and materials were great for refs or citations. However, it was in incredibly hard tool for studying. Also we are not allow to take digital notes or highlight the actual text in the e format. the publisher's rationale was for copyright reasons.

[Terra @ Oct 4th 2008 3:14PM]

Textbooks schmextbooks. Textbooks in my field are only used by Freshmen and Sophomores. I read history, which means I read a lot of monographs like, oh, "Many Thousands Gone," by Ira Berlin. If I can't get them in Kindle (or whatever) format, I'm not going to buy the reader. Also, since these e-reader formats clip off actual page numbers and fail to include footnotes, bibliographies, copyright page, indices, etc. etc. then they're useless for research. I also read a lot of readers, both published and put out by my professors, so if I can't buy the published readers or upload my own PDFs then again, no point. And the device will definitely need color - can't do Art History, for example, without color. Biology would be hard too. And I'd need to be able to keep my books, and print out sections of them, and mark marginalia, highlight, underline, etc. etc. And then there's JC's point about not being able to compare things. I often need to look at three books and two articles at a time. Again, this device would *only* be good for people who get assigned a major textbook and maybe a little supplemental material, not people who have to do actual research. Which is sort of the point of college, huh?

The e-reader market is focused on gadgetphiles who like to read mass market fiction. If they want to do something for college students or researchers, they're going to need to reformat their electronic books, which is probably the more serious problem from their angle.

[Steph @ Nov 7th 2008 9:37AM]

Speaking as a mathematics major:

I did no research in college. I had to write no papers (except in those english classes unrelated to my major). I didn't have colored textbooks for the most part (unless the text itself was colored).

The only thing I required out of my book was the ability to flip back and forth quickly between the pages.

An e-ink reader with a large enough screen and a fast processor would have worked for my purposes. This plastic logic reader looks promising.

The current Kindle wouldn't work. The screen is too small, the processing speed is too slow, and you have to flip page by page in a system that in no way corresponds to actual book page numbers. As a leisure reader, it works well enough, to replace anything except a leisure book it pretty much fails.