Amazon offering Kindle e-book rentals for textbooks

Posted: July 18th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Notes | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments »

Just another outdated legacy industry being seriously disrupted:

Amazon claims students can save as much as 80% off textbook list prices by renting from the Kindle Store. The company is offering tens of thousands of textbooks, which students can rent for periods ranging from 30 to 360 days. Amazon has also extended its Whispersnyc technology so that students can access all their notes and highlighted content in the Amazon Cloud, even after the rental agreement is over.

Should you really need to buy an overpriced book to use for three months? This digital rental model makes a lot more sense. The big question will be execution and getting textbook makers on board.

  • Sean Thornton

    I’ve always thought this was an unsavory racket that gouged students and padded the profits of the educational industrial machine. I hope it takes off.

    • http://twitter.com/pwthornton Patrick Thornton

      My co-host Prof. Littau can speak to this better, but textbooks often receive minor revisions just to push out new editions. This is long overdue, but will textbook makers buy in? With this require new textbook makers willing to play ball?

      The CK-12 foundation is disrupting textbooks though: http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/