The New York Times reports that Amazon has won a $30 million, three-year contract with the New York City public schools that will result in it providing e-books to the nation's largest public school system.
"Amazon won the right to sell digital textbooks and other content, though not hardware like Kindles, to New York schools through an internal marketplace site," the story says. "The school district has about 1.1 million pupils in more than 1,800 schools."
The Times goes on: "The deal is a boost to Amazon as it seeks to establish itself as a player in education. Many technology firms have set their sights on the classroom, viewing it as ripe for modernization and an effective way to establish their brands with potentially lifelong buyers at a young age.
"For New York, there may be savings in buying more digital books, as well as the prospect of saving storage space for printed texts. The education department said e-books purchased from Amazon through its marketplace site will be readable on a variety of devices include e-readers, tablets, smartphones and laptops."
"Amazon won the right to sell digital textbooks and other content, though not hardware like Kindles, to New York schools through an internal marketplace site," the story says. "The school district has about 1.1 million pupils in more than 1,800 schools."
The Times goes on: "The deal is a boost to Amazon as it seeks to establish itself as a player in education. Many technology firms have set their sights on the classroom, viewing it as ripe for modernization and an effective way to establish their brands with potentially lifelong buyers at a young age.
"For New York, there may be savings in buying more digital books, as well as the prospect of saving storage space for printed texts. The education department said e-books purchased from Amazon through its marketplace site will be readable on a variety of devices include e-readers, tablets, smartphones and laptops."
- KC's View:
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If kids get used to the idea of reading e-books, whether on Kindle or iPads or whatever, it only is good for Amazon, which gets to expand its ecosystem.
