LISNews: Librarian News

Nobody is likely to confuse a Kindle with a cellphone, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said Monday he considered the cellphone business model: undercharge for the device and make it up on content and service fees.

But, Bezos told Wired’s Steven Levy at Wired’s Disruptive by Design conference in New York, it’s cheaper in the long run for customers to pay something akin to the actual cost for hardware. And fees and minimum purchase requirements create friction.

“We did consider [the cellphone model] for Kindle,” Bezos said in an interview with Wired’s Steven Levy at Wired’s Disruptive by Design Conference in New York. “Instead of driving the cognitive complexity of a two-year commitment, [we] just tell people, ‘This is the actual cost of the device,’” he said.

Full story at Wired.com

A Purina edition of "Marley and Me"?

Blog post here.

UPDATE see below: The contest is over and we have a winner...librarian Lauren Gilbert of Hungtington NY has garnered the laurels as the author of "tree book"...congratulations Lauren and to all the entrants.
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Amazon may launch the Kindle in the UK this year, Waterstone's has had success with the Sony Reader and Borders is about to launch a new device, but author Nick Hornby is not feeling the fever pitch over e-books.

In an interview with The Bookseller High Fidelity author Hornby has expressed skepticism as to whether the e-book reader will become as ubiquitous as the Apple iPod. He said: "People don't read enough. Their consumption is summer holidays and they like to take a couple of paperbacks away with them. That's a three-for-two offer. They read maybe seven or eight per year. You don't need one of those machines to do that."

Hornby suggested that no one had any great affection for CDs, whereas people are still attached to books as a form. He said: "It's hard to beat the convenience and price of a paperback book.
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An interesting story in the Chronicle of Higher Education about one college campus' experience with e-textbooks and the response from students and faculty.

Story can be found here .