Kindle Drops Its Price–Is It Now A Viable Option for Students?
There has been a lot of hype about the Amazon Kindle electronic reader. The device allows users to download up to 1500 books in less than 60 seconds. Amazon has dropped the price of the Kindle 2 from $359 U.S. to $299 U.S. Does this price drop now put the Kindle within reach of college students budgets?
First of all, the idea of electronic books is a great one. E-books save trees and the backs of students lugging those extra heavy backpacks. Kindle owners can download most new books at a price of $9.99 which is a considerable savings from new hardbook releases. Unfortuately, the large size of textbooks is not very compatible with the design of the Kindle. To accomodate the larger size of textbooks, the Kindle DX is the recommended device. Naturally, the larger size screen of the Kindle DX (9.7 inches vs. 6 inches for the Kindle 2) brings with it a larger price tag as well. The DX version of the Kindle sells for $489, which is not an inexpensive investment for the college student. It does, however, have the capacity to store up to 3500 books.
But one obstacle that the Kindle has not overcome yet is that it does not yet have color capacity--all type and pictures are reproduced in grey scale. While this is not a problem for a novel for your English class, it is a definite drawback for science classes. Can you imagine trying to study musculature for your anatomy class when everything is rendered in gray?
So while the Kindle is an idea whose time has come, I would not purchase one with the intention of downloading textbooks just yet. A $489 price tag for the DX model is still very pricey, and I am willing to bet that within the next year or so more improvements such as the ability to render pages in color will come to the technology. I would wait on these improvements and further drops in price before I would invest in the Kindle.
If you are interested in e-textbook options, or options for cheaper textbooks in general, please see my earlier posts on textbooks options, here and here.
