Amazon launched its Whispercast for Kindle tablets a few months ago and this new program allows schools to deliver ebooks and content to an entire fleet of tablets. This is very useful for IT staff that need to deliver a specific ebook or e-textbook to a whole class of students. The Kindle Fire got an upgrade today that will allow schools to make bulk purchases of apps and have them automatically install on as many tablets as needed.
In the past, organizations would have to manually make a purchase through each user account, a lengthy and often laborious process. Now, an administrator can simply log in to Whispercast, find the app they want to buy, and push it out to their managed Kindle Fire tablets. If their users have their own personal Kindle Fire, the organization can also use Whispercast to invite them to “opt-in” and gift Kindle Fire apps directly to their Amazon account.
This new program enhancement will really help schools that need to deliver specific apps like Overdrive or various learning apps. It should be an added incentive to turn to the Kindle tablet line to handle distribution and ease of use.
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.