Random Business Idea

**Ensign** · 03-09-2009 01:18 PM

I was just thinking of an education-related idea (probably isn't that novel).

What will happen if we completely replaced textbooks in our school system with a kindle-like device?

It would almost be exactly like the electronic print readers out there, minus many of the other perks (to cut costs and also just to keep it education-related). Schools would lend them out to students (who would then sign out some sort of form/wavier in case of damages).

What do you guys think of a business that sold these things to schools/colleges/educational organizations?

Of course, royalties will be paid, and to prevent copyright infringement or illegal distribution individual users cannot add/remove/modify content that's alread uploaded to the device (only some sort of administrator could).

I would like your opinions on ths idea. I am only 17 and doing this as a mental exercise.

**Gene** · 03-09-2009 01:27 PM

I think that in the event of a major electronic failure (resulting from a solar flare or something of that type) we'd have a problem.

**Doodyps** · 03-09-2009 01:38 PM

Its a good thought and something worth thinking more about, however, I can think of several reasons that unfortunately make it a far off reality.

Problem: The price of text books and the never ending new editions feed a massive industry. These are entrenched businesses and they have lobbyists and friends in powerful places and stockholders. Text books are often written by professors...professors are often members of unions. Exactly how many college professors are in unions compared to public k-12 teachers , I don't know. It is very likely though that unions themselves make money off text books, but I can not prove that and am not an expert in the area. Anyway, the point is, attempting to change a large group's cash cow will meet tons of resistance, so don't expect any publicly financed school to be willing to experiment with this.

Solution: Start small by speaking with private and charter schools. I still don't know where youll get the content, as I doubt any established text books will want to take less money instead of forcing you to buy the book. However, maybe you can find a professor willing to write a text for your device.

Problem: What about work books? You would still need either workbooks or paper print outs so people can interact with the material.

Solution: The device could communicate with Cannon or Xerox copy machines. The school can take it upon itself to print out all the necessary material, but that actually shifts costs from the students (workbook) to the school (paper and ink).

There are more issues but I don't want to write a whole essay. If something like this were to succeed, it would need to offer substantially more than just a new interface for reading. Obviously, the costs would need to come down as well, since Kindle costs $350 (don't know what it costs to make though). Those costs would inevitably come down, but enough to make it worth buying when you still have to pay for content? Probably not. You would need to find a way of adding much greater value than "it would do the same thing and take up less space".

It is one of those ideas though that we all know will come to pass in some way. Someone will eventually replace the text book with something better, but is this the way and the right time?

**The Phantom Ghost** · 03-09-2009 01:39 PM

Whats wrong with books?

Cheap and cheerfull, lots of skools cant afford them let alone some mad machine...

**stri8ed** · 03-09-2009 01:59 PM

good thinking but i will tell you why i think it wont work

A digital reader can not replace the look and feel of a real book, the reason the kindle was made and sells is not because people don't like books, it is for the mobility and storage capacity. which is not as beneficial for schoolbooks where people want large easy to read/interact interfaces.

bottom line i think it is too expensive and not extremely useful for this particular environment (esp the younger children)

and for older college students i dont think it would work because people who want can use their laptops for it.

but i could be wrong

**Proph** · 03-09-2009 02:24 PM

stri8ed, you pretty much hit the nail on the head.

for awhile i was traveling non-stop for work on top of traveling for contract work on the side. i thought the kindle would be awsome for storing manuals and such since carrying the book was just to cumbersome.

First of all it is as big a pain in the butt as the laptop (looking at you TSA) in terms of security, i didn't care for the screen after awhile and the lack of interactivity ended up making it useless. in the end it was easier to just put the file on the laptop. yeah it sucks having to get the laptop out just to find the syntax of the command i was looking for but at least i could easily search out what i needed and edit the manual leaving myself little notes in the sections so i didn't make the same mistake twice.

eReaders could have been so much better however by the time you add a pen, interactivity, wifi connections and the sort you basically have a tablet PC.

**Ensign** · 03-09-2009 02:41 PM

Thanks for the replies guys, you've really helped!

**mthomas** · 03-09-2009 02:47 PM

I think it is a great idea. Yes, maybe there will be issues that the authors and publishers may have with the platform, but if the concept catches on with the CUSTOMERS: ie: students, than the publishers and authors will have no choice but to publish to this platform. They must remember that it is the students who provide the sales revenue. It doesn't matter how powerful they are as a lobbying group, if the market shows that they prefer a digital format, that is what the manufacturers have to provide.

Students HATE the idea of having to carry around a ton of heavy books to class. I personally avoided bringing any textbooks to class. Textbooks add clutter to my room, take up a lot of space in my car during semesters, and are very heavy when you have to carry more than one in conjunction with a laptop or several notebooks.

Plus textbooks are unreasonably expensive and I think it is time a cheaper solution is offered to give some competition. If you ask me, the way these textbooks are required, it is like a borderline monopoly. If we can't be allowed a choice on what textbook to buy, we must at least be given a choice on the platform.

Proph mentioned that the screen and lack of interactivity make the product useless. That may be true, but that is an INTERFACE problem, not a CONCEPT problem. You can always improve on a product, but the concept, I believe is a very good one.

**stri8ed** · 03-09-2009 03:45 PM

Originally Posted by mthomas

I think it is a great idea. Yes, maybe there will be issues that the authors and publishers may have with the platform, but if the concept catches on with the CUSTOMERS: ie: students, than the publishers and authors will have no choice but to publish to this platform. They must remember that it is the students who provide the sales revenue. It doesn't matter how powerful they are as a lobbying group, if the market shows that they prefer a digital format, that is what the manufacturers have to provide.

Students HATE the idea of having to carry around a ton of heavy books to class. I personally avoided bringing any textbooks to class. Textbooks add clutter to my room, take up a lot of space in my car during semesters, and are very heavy when you have to carry more than one in conjunction with a laptop or several notebooks.

Plus textbooks are unreasonably expensive and I think it is time a cheaper solution is offered to give some competition. If you ask me, the way these textbooks are required, it is like a borderline monopoly. If we can't be allowed a choice on what textbook to buy, we must at least be given a choice on the platform.

Proph mentioned that the screen and lack of interactivity make the product useless. That may be true, but that is an INTERFACE problem, not a CONCEPT problem. You can always improve on a product, but the concept, I believe is a very good one.

Why would i want/buy this in addition to a laptop which can do that plus everything else at close to the same size? i think a better i idea would be to try and translate these school books into digital format and sell them, allowing people to use it as they wish, be it laptop, iphone kindle etc..

why pay for the extra hardware and space i don't need.

**Doodyps** · 03-09-2009 05:14 PM

Most texts can be accessed online already. Lot's of the texts have passwords in them that allow you access.

And no. The text book people don't have to give anyone any choice until someone takes the risk and immense investment of competing with a different platform. They have no reason to lower costs to the student and their profit margin to make you happy when you have to buy their newest edition for $185.00 or fail the class. If people cared about making it cheaper, then professors wouldn't constantly be requiring you to buy the new versions when the old versions can be bought used for a lot less. It's not some conspiracy theory, but they are all in it together to generate money. I think a lot of professors are sympathetic to the book companies because they want to someday write a text and make a ton of money.

Until then, you have to rely on used books to save money, or hope you get a professor that doesn't care about the latest version that has a different title page and 2 new problems in the back.

At this point, an elctronic platform would just be a lot like using a laptop. The only real advantage is size and the "paper" soft screen kindle uses (which then lacks color). Would we really consider going from color to black and white moving forward? The more I think about it, the more I think the laptop people will have this angle covered. Laptops continue to get cheaper, batteries live longer (or will eventually), and will all connect to the internet.

If you want to replace a paper platform with an electronic one, I think newspapers are something that can be targeted. At this point, newspapers are going to have to think of something to stay in business. Imagine a large pane of glass (12in-8in) that would connect to your news network (or multiple news networks). You could wake up, have it sitting on your table, use the touch screen to flip through the stories and tab through the sections. It's not much different than a laptop, but if you want a clearer screen it may be worth it. It would be portable and extremely simple to use and would save delivery and material costs to the paper company. It could be distributed like a cable box, where you essentially rent the device while you have the service and return if when you un-subscribe. It may be a stretch though, and like the other idea, too easy to replace or replicate with a laptop.

**mthomas** · 03-10-2009 03:45 PM

Originally Posted by stri8ed

Why would i want/buy this in addition to a laptop which can do that plus everything else at close to the same size? i think a better i idea would be to try and translate these school books into digital format and sell them, allowing people to use it as they wish, be it laptop, iphone kindle etc..

why pay for the extra hardware and space i don't need.

I agree, I was really arguing that I'd much prefer to see more textbooks offered in SOME form of digital format. Yes, some textbooks are offered in digital format already, but many still aren't. There are also some textbooks that are offered in digital format, but they are extremely difficult to find online and download.

I like what amazon does--a lot of their books are offered in a variety of formats: paperback, hardcover, audio, kindle edition, etc... I think it would be a great idea if textbooks were more widely available in a number of formats.

As pointed out in the original post, digital formats would make textbooks much easier to RENT out, since inventory isn't an issue. So I think digitizing even more textbooks, and renting them out in an expiring type of format (kind of like DRM) would be a great and inexpensive solution for students, plus it would actually save libraries, schools and publishers overhead.