Published on: July 20, 2011
by Kevin CoupeCall it yet more evidence of how technology is changing our lives. And might even be good for our backs.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Amazon is looking to further the penetration of its Kindle e-reader by launching textbook rentals designed specifically for the Kindle, promising discounts of as much as 80 percent from purchase prices - a move that seems likely to save parents a lot of money and students a fair amount of backache.
According to the story, “Students can rent a textbook for as little as 30 days or up to 360 days, with fees differing depending on how long the book is rented, Amazon said in a statement. Rentals can be read on Amazon's Kindle eReaders, as well as Kindle apps for Macs and PCs, as well as smartphones and tablet computers running Apple's iOS, Microsoft Windows Phone 7 and Google's Android operating system.”
And, it gets even more Eye-Opening:
"We've done a little something extra we think students will enjoy," Dave Limp, vice president of Amazon's Kindle unit, tells the paper. "Normally, when you sell your print textbook at the end of the semester you lose all the margin notes and highlights you made as you were studying. We're extending our Whispersync technology so that you get to keep and access all of your notes and highlighted content in the Amazon Cloud, available anytime, anywhere -- even after a rental expires. If you choose to rent again or buy at a later time, your notes will be there just as you left them."
Once again, these kinds of shifts and innovations are worth paying attention to because they are changing the assumptions that young people - who will be the center of the target for many retailers in just a few years - bring to the marketplace.
As those assumptions evolve, so must retailers and other marketers. Do do otherwise, is to proceed with your eyes closed.
- KC's View: