According to rumors, Amazon is due to unveil the new version of Kindle, the "large screen" one. Frederic Landrois speculates on Read/Write/Web that one of the effects of the new Kindle, perhaps an unintentional one, could be the reduction and eventual extinction of the used-textbook market. According to Landrois,
"For textbook publishers, electronic (and DRMed) editions aren't so much about convenience for students, but about cutting out the used-book market, where a lot of students get their books and where the publisher gets absolutely nothing. In 2005, the market for used textbooks in the U.S. was valued at about $1.6 billion, about a third of the total market for educational and professional books."
If that, indeed happens, that would be an unfortunate effect of this otherwise great piece of technology. I remember than when the first Kindle was released, ideas were floated than, rather than having students buy a new set of printed textbooks every semester, publishers could come up with cheaper, electronic versions for Kindle. That way, a student invests in a Kindle and keeps buying electronic versions of books for much less than those books' printed versions. Of course, perhaps allowing that to happen would have been unthinkable if you are a textbook publisher whose only apparent way of making a profit these days is coming up with new "editions" every year which contain minimal content changes but cost more and more.
