Colleges Support Amazon's Kindle

The latest college to officially support Amazon's e-book phenomenon, the Kindle, is Princeton University. That will make it a fave four of Princeton, Berkeley, Yale and Oxford. The kindle has sold amazingly well especially considering that it carries a $300 price tag and is none other than a e-book reader. Sony has been trying to tackle the e-reader market for years and has failed time after time.

What Amazon really did well was provide a service where users can wirelessly purchase and download books whenever they want, wherever they want. Amazon collaborated with Sprint to provide access to Amazon's book store, Whispernet, over Sprint's pre-existing EVO-DO 3G cell network. That is genius. Amazon's kindle is so ridiculously easy to operate--no more syncing with the computer through wires or even wirelessly. If they cut the price of the device to a more reasonable $200, or even less, the e-book market could really take off. Amazon is positioning itself with e-books similarly as Apple did with music. It is creating a device that opens up a whole new marketplace, where Amazon is already the leader.

Some may ask why Amazon, whose entire business began by selling books over the internet would threaten their bread and butter operations. Isn't Amazon bringing forth its own creative destruction? Indeed it is. And if Amazon's Kindle completely obliterates its book selling division So be it. Amazon saw the future and knew that it had to grasp it before anyone else did. It also happened to be in the best position to do so. This kind of aggressiveness is what typifies a strong growing business. Sadly, Amazon brought in $14.8 billion of revenues in 2007 and the Kindle is merely projected to bring in $750 million by 2010. (Note: this is on device sales only, and not book sales that the Kindle is sure to whip upwards.)

More reading:
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/5/amazon_kindle_a_750_million_ipod_like_business_by_2010_amzn_
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9979179-7.html