Should Colleges Make Owning Kindle Mandatory?

These past couple of weeks have been great for Amazon. It has already launched a killer, larger Kindle and made adjustments to Kindle store to make it more iPhone friendly. But will Kindle DX strike a cord with college students, as Amazon surely expects. I was surprised when I read about a few universities making the iPhone a must have gadget for their students. I know most business schools require students to own laptops, but University of Missouri’s School of Journalism has made it mandatory for students to own an iPhone.

…Freshmen admitted into the School of Journalism and pre-journalism students will be sent a letter notifying them of the change. Students may buy either an iPod touch or iPhone in order to meet the new requirement.

It’s certainly an interesting development. But for those students who are not planning to become a journalist, Kindle DX will probably provide more value. After all, they get to read their college books the modern way with Amazon Kindle. I am confident that Amazon is already working on deals with colleges and universities around the nation to provide students with an incentive to take a chance on Kindle DX. After all, if there is a gadget that should be “required” for college courses, it should be Kindle and not iPhone. The DX is a bit pricey but it can save students a lot of money on those expensive text-books.

Will Amazon offer educational discounts? It’s very likely. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon offered a $50-100 discount to college students just to get them signed up. Colleges and universities will still want to sell their overpriced books, but I am sure Amazon can work something out with them. I doubt owning a Kindle will be mandatory anytime soon, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was presented as recommended educational gadget.

Your take: how can Amazon get college students to adopt Kindle DX?