New Kindle Fire Continues to Burn Book Retailers and Now Libraries
October 7, 2011
When Amazon first came out with the Kindle there were concerns that e-books would take the place of paper books and would force book stores to close their doors. It’s safe to say that these concerns were valid as Barnes and Noble and other book retailers are slowly going out of business despite attempts to hop on the e-book bandwagon. Now the impending release of the Kindle Fire, a $199 Android-based 7-inch touchscreen device, this week may be the nail in the coffin for our public libraries as well.
In addition to all of it’s exciting new apps, streaming, web access, and cross-platform compatibility, one of the Kindle Fire’s biggest selling points may be the rumored unlimited access to an e-book library (for $80 a year) which would include free access to over 3,000 Fox TV shows and free two day shipping.
In the article, The Birth of the Kindle Fire and the Death of the Public Library Sebastian Anthony says of the Kindle Fire e-book library feature:
This maneuver is as close to perfect as it gets. It has already overcome the biggest stumbling block to digital e-books — coming to terms with never holding/fingering/sniffing a paper book ever again — and now it’s moving in for the coup de grâce. The Kindle has flown off the shelves since its release in 2007, and while exact figures aren’t given, there could be 10 to 20 million Kindle users — and every single one of them would kill for an Amazon Digital Library. After all, even when you buy an e-book, you never really owned the book — Amazon can remotely delete books from your Kindle at any time — so why not rent?
While $199 purchasing cost and $80 yearly rental fees are a great deal, no amount of convenience can beat something that’s free.
Jasmine Ashton, October 7, 2011
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