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Maybe a textbook case for innovation
Amazon's Kindle, the electronic book reader
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TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: Digital book readers have helped reignite the printed . . . typed word. And Amazon's got a new one coming out for newspapers and textbooks that publishers hope will do the same.
From the Innovations Desk at North Carolina Public Radio, here's Marketplace's Janet Babin.
Janet Babin: You can read newspapers and magazines on most e-readers now, but the small screens can make it difficult. The new, bigger Kindle is expected to be loose-leaf sized and could be bendable.
No matter how many bells and whistles, though, blogger Om Malik with GigaOm says e-readers won't halt sagging newspaper and magazine subscriptions. But he says academic journals and textbook publishers could get a boost from a larger digital reader:
Om Malik: I remember carrying around like a four-pound chemistry book. I mean if there was something like a Kindle, life would have been great.
The current Kindle costs about $370. That would make it an expensive gadget for many students.
Amazon won't comment on the new Kindle, but the company has planned a news conference for Wednesday.
I'm Janet Babin for Marketplace.
Well, $370 doesn't sound so bad to me, even on a student's budget. Textbooks were pretty pricey when I was an engineering undergrad, and I can't imagine they have gotten cheaper in the past 10-15 years. If the right price-point can be found for eTextbooks, then a good case might be made to students for eReaders. Granted, that's mostly for pricing of books used in professional and science degrees - I'm not sure if the same argument applies to the liberal arts.
