Despite the excitement for Amazon’s new 9.7-inch Kindle DX, there’s still some uncertainty about which segment of the book-reading market is most likely to drop nearly $500 on the electronic reader. A number of different possibilities have been suggested, including the elderly (large print is easier to do on the Kindle), newspaper readers (unlikely), and, perhaps most promisingly, college students.
College textbooks ring up a cool $10 billion per year in sales, and Amazon no doubt would love to get a piece of that action. But while the college and university crowd may be more receptive to the idea of an e-reader (and have the disposable cash to buy one in the first place), it’s still not a slam dunk.
A Greener Campus
One way in which Amazon is trying to make the Kindle DX more compelling to students and institutions is by pitching the device’s environmental aspects. Six colleges and universities — including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ alma mater, Princeton — have signed up to participate in a pilot program to test the Kindle DX on campus. Students at each school will be able to sign up for one of three courses and receive a Kindle for testing electronic textbooks. The other participants include Pace University, Case Western Reserve University, Reed College, Arizona State University, and the Darden School at the University of Virginia.
According to the The Daily Princetonian, Princeton’s student newspaper, the university printed more than 10 million pages from so-called cluster printers. The hope is that Kindle-equipped students won’t need to print out articles or chapters, but instead download them and read them electronically. Even a small decrease in printing would result in a substantial savings for the school.
Both Amazon and the universities suggest that over time, the Kindle will reduce the number of outdated textbooks that wind up in…