Can Kindle Replace Text Books?
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Is the Kindle DX: Amazon's 9.7" Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)
A technology which displaces conventional methods of trading, and in the process drives out the previous winners -who usually have a monopoly like power- is disruptive.
For example, Wikipedia was disruptive with respect to printed encyclopedias.
Twenty years ago, personal computer operating system software was disruptive with respect to mainframes.
Youtube may be disruptive with respect to television.
Craigslist is disruptive to printed newspapers with resepct to classified ads.
Zune was not disruptive because people found Zune's method of "sharing" music too clumsy in comparison.
Each disruptive technology allows the consumer to obtain at better price, free many times, a product that is just as good in value as the previous product.
The new product is not better, probably worse, but a price you cannot ignore.
Bob Sutton had a nice overview and discussed whether Kindle was a disruptive technology.
My argument is that Kindle threatens the established textbook market, because textbooks can be treated as software, and rental items. You only want the text for one course, you rent it.
You want revisions, Kindle updates your textbook automatically. Or, as in the recent case of Orwell's 1984, Amazon deletes your textbook.
More specifically, Amazon should do the following:
1. Contact every college textbook author and advise that all new editions would only be kindle e-books.
2. Drive every reseller of old textbooks out of the market by selling a bundle of freshman textbooks with a Kindle - with a rebate of 50% for every textbook that they no longer wanted on their Kindle.
Treat books as a combination of time dated shareware, and unlimited but not free software updates for the real deal.
3. Gently raise the cost of updates, realizing I was a monopolist. And from time to time, simply give away a ton of Kindles, in order to garner public love for when the DoJ came after me on antitrust grounds.
Seth Goodin, a big fan of Kindle X, a moderate fan of Kindle 2, agrees with me about the potential disruptiveness of Kindle for the textbook market.
"Demolish the textbook market as soon as possible by publishing open source textbooks for free. It's only natural that profit-minded professors will work to replace this by [being a publisher]."
Jordan Furlong, writing at Law21.ca, has another view about the disruptive force of Kindle.
"Legal publishers wouldn't be able to sell annual or subsequent editions of popular texts; but they would be able to open up a whole new market of real-time knowledge refreshment.
The speed and accuracy of updates could become points of competition between publishers (a category that could include the established giants as well as upstart individuals or bloggers).
In addition to downloading the new Supreme Court ruling, a publisher could also offer access to an analysis of the decision by its in-house expert, perhaps as a value-added part of the user's monthly subscription that enables the downloads."
Open access, speed and accuracy of updates, and ease of use all come together in the Kindle to make it a serious threat to the established text book market.
Professor Brainbridge, a noted legal texbook writer, is a fan of Amazon's decision to delete unauthorized books, noting:
"Looking at the problem from the perspective of an author who royalties are a very large percentage of his annual income and an avid Kindle user, I'm totally okay with the the differences between real books and e-books.
As it is, the used book market takes a huge chunk out of my annual royalties. The drop off from the first year of a new edition to the second can be as high as 30%, for example.
Case Western Reserve University students will be among the first in the nation to use textbooks on the new Kindle electronic reader next fall, using a large-screen version of the device to be unveiled today in New York.
"Thing is, writes Fowler, owning an e-book is more akin to licensing a piece of software than it is to owning a bound volume: access comes with fine-print terms of service, and often digital rights management software to ensure that you abide by the rules."
Licensing textbooks is going to make Kindle DX: Amazon's 9.7" Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)
Comments
Apple has just released Ipad with competitive pricing and more features for their base model. Do you think this will affect the Amazon Kindle market? Thanks :)
Posted by: Amazon Kindle | January 30, 2010 2:34 PM
I read a few negative reviews but maybe those people are just negative people that have a lot to complain about. My kindle has very little glare I have to seriously position it to make a glare on the screen. Jeez it's plastic not actually paper so it's gonna have a little glare but I had to intentionally find direct light just to see what some people were talking about. It would be nice to control the contrast of the screen but no complaints here. It's easy on the eyes and thin. If you read a lot then you will love it. Way better than lugging a bunch of books around. By the way, there are some free kindle books you just have to find them, they are mostly classics and older titles.
Here is a petition to Amazon to create an update to give the capability to change the screen contrast and create a darker text.
Posted by: Cheryl Mansfield | December 14, 2009 12:08 AM
I received my much-anticipated Kindle 2 on Wednesday. Even though I got home at 1 am from a work-related trip, I just had to turn it on and play with it! By morning, I had downloaded my first book. By lunch, I had all my co-workers huddled around it, drooling over it. By dinner, I was in trouble - I downloaded a book for my 11-year old. By 7 pm, I was empty-handed and my daughter was devouring her book.
We've worked out a compromise, but you know what, the Kindle is PERFECT for young readers. She loves the dictionary feature and it really makes her excited to look up the new words (I think she skips that part in reading a "regular book." In addition, if there's a word that is hard to pronounce she can turn on the speech feature - it's not perfect, but it really helps.
The Kindle is going to be a mainstay in my purse (LOVE the size and LOVE the cover). My co-workers with high schoolers are thinking seriously about investing in the Kindle for the dictionary and highlighting features alone - it'll be a super tool for them to use now (and in college) when writing papers is an everyday occurrence. Some of my co-workers are also considering it for their spouses who "book club" - the "clippings" feature is perfect for recording thoughts to take to book club.
Me, I'm a recreational reader and a busy mom who is going to use the Kindle to help make it easier to find time for reading - a book will be at the ready at all times!
Posted by: J. D. McInerny | December 13, 2009 11:45 PM