Amazon will be rolling out digital textbook rental for Kindle devices, offering students a discount of up to 80% on the price of a hard copy when they choose to buy a digital version.
Digital textbooks will be available to “rent” for anything between 30 and 360 days, perfect for those textbooks you only require for a term, specific subject or even just a school year. Not only will this save you being lumbered with big expensive textbooks that you no longer need, it saves paper. Nice one, Amazon.
Thanks to the features of the Kindle e-reader you’ll also be able to make margin notes and annotations on areas of your digital textbook. These won’t be lost when your rental period ends either, as they will be saved online in the Amazon Cloud, ready for access at any time through your account.
Amazon says that “tens of thousands” of textbooks are already available in their Kindle-friendly digital format, with up to 80% discounts being offered when compared to the price of a hard copy. Textbooks for the 2011 academic year are available now from leading publishers such as John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis.
Amazon’s digital textbook library will also be accessible on PC and Mac, but for those times when you need to take your work on a flight or journey you’ll have it on your Kindle.
We think digital textbooks are a great idea and one that more publishers need to take into account. Share your thoughts on digital textbooks for PC and Kindle with us by adding a comment.
You can read the full press release from Amazon below.
[spoiler]Students Can Now Save Up To 80% with Kindle Textbook Rental
Low rental prices and flexible rental periods of any length between 30 and 360 days
Margin notes and highlighted passages are stored in the Amazon Cloud for viewing anytime, anywhere – even after a rental expires
SEATTLE, July 18, 2011-(NASDAQ: AMZN)-Today, Amazon.com announced the launch of Kindle Textbook Rental-now students can save up to 80% off textbook list prices by renting from the Kindle Store. Tens of thousands of textbooks are available for the 2011 school year from leading textbook publishers such as John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis. Students can find details about the program at www.amazon.com/kindletextbooks.
“Students tell us that they enjoy the low prices we offer on new and used print textbooks. Now we’re excited to offer students an option to rent Kindle textbooks and only pay for the time they need-with savings up to 80% off the print list price on a 30-day rental,” said Dave Limp, vice president, Amazon Kindle.
Kindle Textbook Rental offers the ability to customize rental periods to any length between 30 and 360 days, so students only pay for the specific amount of time they need a book. Students can also easily extend any rental period in increments as small as one day or choose to purchase the book they are renting at any time.
“We’ve done a little something extra we think students will enjoy,” continued Limp. “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, perfectly Whispersynced.”
Kindle Textbooks are “Rent Once, Read Everywhere” as they can be read across the most popular devices with free Kindle Reading Apps for PC, Mac, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android-based devices.
For more information about Kindle Textbook Rental, visit www.amazon.com/kindletextbooks.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle with Special Offers, Kindle 3G with Special Offers and Kindle DX are the revolutionary portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle 3G, Kindle 3G with Special Offers and Kindle DX utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, and www.amazon.it. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.[/spoiler]