The New York City Department of Education is about to approve a $30 million dollar contract with Amazon to create a single, massive ebook marketplace for the city’s 1,800 public schools. This deal might dramatically lower the price of textbooks because digital is cheaper than print.
The marketplace, known as “Storefront“, will provide low-cost digital versions of textbooks and other assigned books that are accessible via a “variety of devices”. Purchased content will be made available on these devices via Amazon’s Whispercast platform.
The Amazon contract with the city is over three years, through 2018, at $4.3 million the first year, 2015-2016; $8.6 million the second year, 2016-2017, and $17.2 million the third year, 2017-2018.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
