MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - An e-textbook competitor for Amazon

Nate the great · 05-10-2009, 10:13 PM

I've been working this evening on a list of companies I want to talk to at Digital Book 2009.

For example, I want to talk to the big 3 textbook publishers mentioned last week in Amazon's press release. I'm planning to ask whether they publish their textbooks in Epub as well as on the Kindle. (What can I say, I have this thing about Amazon not becoming a monopoly.) I personally think it's better to have a textbook in Epub rather than on the Kindle because you can use the full resources of your computer.

I also wanted to talk to Barnes & Noble about the future of the eReader format, as well as see if I can get a hint about a possible device.

As I was writing those notes I realized that here might be a competitor for Amazon in the etextbook market. Barnes & Noble already sells textbooks; it runs 600 college bookstores in the US. It also has an online presence for each bookstore where a student can order books. How difficult could it be to expand the ordering system to include etextbooks?

So, if you're going to DB09, look me up. I want to know if this would work.

05-10-2009, 10:13 PM	#1
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	An e-textbook competitor for Amazon I've been working this evening on a list of companies I want to talk to at Digital Book 2009. For example, I want to talk to the big 3 textbook publishers mentioned last week in Amazon's press release. I'm planning to ask whether they publish their textbooks in Epub as well as on the Kindle. (What can I say, I have this thing about Amazon not becoming a monopoly.) I personally think it's better to have a textbook in Epub rather than on the Kindle because you can use the full resources of your computer. I also wanted to talk to Barnes & Noble about the future of the eReader format, as well as see if I can get a hint about a possible device. As I was writing those notes I realized that here might be a competitor for Amazon in the etextbook market. Barnes & Noble already sells textbooks; it runs 600 college bookstores in the US. It also has an online presence for each bookstore where a student can order books. How difficult could it be to expand the ordering system to include etextbooks? So, if you're going to DB09, look me up. I want to know if this would work.