(Photo of crazy expensive Kindle DX courtsey of Amazon.com)

The internet is having a very public love affair with Amazon's Kindle DX. So let's cut through the foreplay, and get right to it. Will the $489 Kindle DX replace the textbook for Gen Y?

All the buzz has been about how the Kindle DX is going to replace the textbook and how it's the future for college campuses everywhere. Mashable reports that Princeton, UVA, Case Western, Arizona State, and Reed College are all onboard with the Kindle DX and helping to digitize textbooks. While I'm all for digital textbooks, since textbooks are hugely inconvenient, we need to address the numbers first.



To get some other insights, I opened this topic up to HARO and to Twitter . Two of my responses were quite interesting (and polarizing at the same time):

Tim Lytle writes: "With a not quite a year old daughter, I think about what her education will be like. I wouldn't be surprised if she had most of her 'books' on a Kindle, and did most of her work on a tablet pc styled netbook or a 'smart' pen (the livescribe). The technology exists today, and it will only get better, more portable, and more accessible. Sure, maybe it won't be the 'Kindle' from Amazon that she uses - it will probably be something even more integrated, more 'natural'. Maybe something like a netbook with a second screen instead of a keyboard. She'll use it as a laptop with one touch screen displaying a keyboard. She'll use it as her book, flipping it 90 degrees to view two pages. She'll lay it flat and grab a stylus to take notes or work on her art project.

As for cost? Ask any college student if they'd rather pay $500 once then $10/ebook, or buy all paper books. Of course, textbook publishers won't be happy, but there's a change growing in that field as well."



Kit Yarrow, Consumer Psychologist and Professor of Business at Golden Gate University writes:

"What Gen Yers will love most is the mobility. They lead active lives and are famous for multi-tasking. I think the idea that they could snatch a few minutes of reading in anytime will appeal to them. Those texts are weighty in more ways than one. The problem lies in their ability to buy used texts via Kindle. Now that they have multiple online resources available to them many college students are circumventing their college bookstores in favor of less expensive options."

Tim and Kit bring up an interesting point - costs associated with adoption. Kit says that the abundance of online resources for buying and selling textbooks drive the cost of textbooks down already and that the inability to resell texts via the Kindle is a deterrent to adoption, while Tim brings up the idea that if the ebooks are cheap enough, it'll increase adoption rates.



So Let's look at the numbers:



The National Association of College Stores conducted a study that found that students spend on average $702/year on textbooks. This equates to a total expense of $2808 on textbooks over a 4 year college experience. It is also important to note that e-books are already available and contrary to popular belief, textbooks will not be $10 – publishers and authors still want their share. E-books were generally around 70% of the price of the regular print textbooks at the college bookstore and could not be sold back (Looking at the UO bookstore, MKTG 420 Section: 41830 has their required book ISBN: 9780132224154 for sale at $159.75 new, $120 Used, $95.75 e-book. The e-book is 60% of the new price and 80% of the used price, or an average of 70%) Also important to note, is that the website states that an e-book can only be downloaded once, and will be auto-deleted after 150 days.



The Kindle:



1 Kindle DX = $489





Yearly E-Book expenses = $491.4/yr (70% of the yearly $702 average)

$491.4 x 4 years = $1965.6 + $489 for the Kindle





= $2454.6 for four years of e-books and a Kindle DX

The Traditional Textbook



$702 (avg cost/year) x 4 years = $2808





Given the alternative online resources for reselling textbooks, (Amazon.com, half.com, eBay.com, or simply selling them to my friends) I was on average able to recoup 40-60% of what I paid for my textbooks. For argument's sake, let's average that out at 50%.

If I'm able to make 50% back when I resell books at the end of the term I get:



$2808 x 50% = $1404





Total cost of traditional textbooks over four years = $1404

Total difference in cost over 4 years between traditional textbooks and a Kindle DX: $1050.60





While the Kindle DX may be slim and sexy, I'm pretty sure that any college student on a strapped budget is going to elect to carry their heavy books if it means saving $1K. Moreover, according to the National Association of College Stores, 26% of students said they usually pay for course materials with scholarships and grants. If the Kindle DX isn't can't be purchased with scholarship money (like some high-end electronics, i.e. computers) then the DX has even more pit against it.

Most importantly, you can buy a pretty sweet netbook for $489 which has way more functionality than a Kindle DX. Or alternatively, buy 489 rounds of drinks at Dollar Beer nights…just sayin.



--Now Let Me Clear My Throat--

