One Kindle Per Little one?

A brand new report by the Democratic Management Council in all probability made Jeff Bezos choke on his bagel this morning–the group of main Democrats is proposing a Kindle for each public faculty pupil in America, with hopes of ultimately saving an estimated $700 million per yr on conventional textbook distribution.

Amazon’s rolled out their jumbo-sized, $489 Kindle DX with plans similar to this in thoughts. Apart from their guarantees to revitalize a stagnant print media business by means of electronically disseminated newspapers and magazines made pleasantly viewable on the DX’s 9.7″ display, an enormous a part of Amazon’s DX pitch entails its handiness as a textbook reader.

Though the group estimates an preliminary $9 billion funding to purchase a Kindle for each child, the plan would presumably save $700 million each year after 5 years of scholars’ downloading their new textbooks slightly than having them printed and shipped. Textbooks on the Kindle may be saved brisker, since updates will be downloaded immediately as wanted.

The financial savings mannequin is smart, however the logistics of each child within the nation studying the whole lot on an e-book reader will definitely include a number of catches. Whereas “the canine ate it” will presumably stay a favourite excuse (or, maybe, “the canine stepped on it, cracking my e-ink display”), college students can now add “the battery ran out” to the record. After which there’s the pesky situation of the black-and-white display, which works a protracted solution to dampen the coolness issue of studying your homework on a gadget. Possibly a toughbook colour Kindle is within the works?

Both approach, reviews are coming in of quite a lot of richly adorned champagne-caviar reward baskets have been seen leaving Amazon’s principal distribution heart, dashing with squealing tires towards DLC headquarters on Pennsylvania Ave., DC.

You’ll be able to obtain the paper on the DLC’s web site. [via NY Times]