Kindle's New Deluxe Model

Following the announcement two weeks ago of the new big screen Kindle--the Kindle DX with a screen two and a half times as large as the previous models and a $489 price tag--Amazon indicated its plans to move into the textbook market in a big way.

The New York Times reported:

Amazon said it had reached agreements with three major textbook publishers to make their books available in the Kindle store: Pearson Education, Cengage Learning and Wiley Higher Education. It said six colleges and universities — Pace, Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, Reed College and the University of Virginia — would begin testing the device with students later this year.

Amazon is also launching a pilot project with the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Washington Post to offer the newspapers at a reduced price for a long-term subscription--but only where the actual physical newspaper is not available to subscribers.

Amazon's current deal with 37 newspapers has created some ill will. The revenue-sharing split is 70/30 with Amazon keeping the 70%.

The announcement of the Kindle DX drew a large amount of attention . . . and some parodies, too. My favorite is here.

To read the New York Times article on the Kindle DX, go here.