I don't see the current Kindle design working for textbooks at all. Maybe next generation DX can, haven't used one of those yet. I would think that if universites go to anything it would be something like an iPad or notebooks. Something with touchscreen, color, and computer power. Kindle is more driven for novels and something you read from start to finish. There is a keyboard and you can search, they would need to improve their UI greatly for it to work for textbooks.
i got a kindle today. i wish the screen was bigger. kinda sucks i am gonna want the next gen one when it comes out. with books i never crave the next gen one.
after a few weeks, i have decided that i actually might favor reading kindle to paper books. overall the thing is outstanding. unlike my sony reader, the pages turn quickly (keep in mind i am literally the fastest reader to ever walk the face of the earth and i need those pages to fly) and the contrast is good. the device is perfect, excpet for the smallish screen. the problem is that the way amazon has maneuvered the thing in a model very similar to the ipod. they are selling the hardware in order to sell books from the kindle store. they are not allowing ebooks from the local library like the sony reader. and this is infuriating. i love the library. i love free books. i like not owning books, because they sre big and clunky and take up space and have no resale or re-reading value. they annoy me. they are like garbage that piles up. imagine if every time you watched a sitcom you had a physical thing the size of a brinck that piled up in your corner, and you had to feel slightly bad about trashing it. thats what books are like. and the library and e-books solve this problem, so i love them, but i cant get them to work together just yet. the sony reader was ok with the library books, but is an inferior device. but i am optimistic, an open platform hardware device has to come soon. i will be happy to pay a nice chunk of change for it.
i have figured out the use for the ipad. you put it next to your bed or tv and check your email on it from the couch or whatever. you look **** up on wikipedia during commercials. you watch movies in your hotel bed. but i cant see it working as a reader. i dont want to read on a lit screen. you cant beat paper or e-ink for reading. plus lit screens need too much recharging. kindle goes forever because all it does it turn pages (if you turn off wireless). only devices needed in 2010: netbook for traveling android phone for daily communications and mobile email. home desktop kindle
Most books are borrow-and-read-once or buy a paperback, read once and give it away. But others are treasures. I keep many references, atlases, history and other non-fiction books that I use from time to time. I keep little fiction, but there are those that I have read multiple times and plan to read again. I keep those. Certain books do have appreciating value in the aftermarket. I keep those, too. I didn't accumulate books when I was young, mobile, and living in small apartments. But I now have a house with room for the stuff I find useful. There are large 18 bookcases among the furniture. But an e-reader does have appeal for me when traveling or to utilize some cheap ebooks . . . if there are any.
amazon sells most books you would want, including nyt bestsellers for 10. the problem is that you cant give them your pals after you finish. but the positive is that you can read a few chapters and then buy it remotely. docking the reader to the PC is a hassle and makes the sony reader inferior. i know some folks in the publishing industry (which is stacked with beautiful women like you would not believe) they seem to be at a pretty serious crossroads and unsure how to handle the juggernaut that is amazon. they come out of meetings with amazon crying. ipod removed drm from almost all of the itunes music years ago. perhaps amazon will go that route? or perhaps a new piece of hardware will be less hardcore about format types? as of now amazon seems to have everyone and everything locked down ina profit-making bonanza.
they will, because amazon is better and more experience on focused on books. the ipad is not a reader, and will be an inferior reading device. the ipad is too multi-fuctional, and will not compete with proper e-ink based readers. you dont read books on your laptop, it just doesnt work. you wont read on your ipad either. if apple made a reader, it might dominate, particularly if they remove the drm and allow people to read anything they want on it.. but that device is not the ipad.
Meh - I can do everything on my iPhone except watch flash video and write REALLY long correspondence. I don't even use my Kindle anymore - I use my iPhone. I don't think iPad is going to be a huge market getter - I think, instead, it is a step towards the next thing - whatever that is. But without the ability to have internet without a wifi hotspot, it's just not as useful as my iPhone.
