Er...um...just in case you weren't being inordinately sublime with sarcasm, there IS a Kindle app for iPhone. (And if that was meant to be humorous, sorry, you may now take me out back and shoot me.)

Anyway, I do agree with your comment overall.

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Yes, there most certainly is a way to step up to a Kindle DX at a significant savings. Two steps:

1) Craigslist or eBay your current Kindle.

2) Apply that newfound wealth towards the purchase of a new Kindle.

Voila! Major discount.

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Its actually a lot like the music industry... their wet dream is to sell CDs, vs textbooks. Neither wants to offer digital downloads because it would cut into their margin and they would be giving it to the demographic most likely to pirate it, copy, and give it to others for free.

With Music, it took CD burners to bridge the gap between CDs and MP3's. Maybe we'll have something like that for text books one day so we can start chipping away at the man.

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First, for my college education in economics and legal studies, I received the majority of my textbooks digitally. I used various reading devices to read them in much the same way.

Second, with appropriate DRM (yuck, I know) on a proprietary reader, some textbook companies might jump at this sort of distribution model because (1) it decreases rates of cannibalization of new edition sales by older editions, (2) it decreases rates of cannibalization of current edition sales by used current editions, and (3) it decreases the cost of goods, thus increasing profits.

Third, whether we like it or not, this is where the industry is ultimately going. Amazon represents an opportunity for publishers to test the waters in a controlled environment. Of course, there will always be holdouts (not ALL of my books were digitally distributed), but eventually they will have no choice but to come along for the ride. For now, the risk/reward ratio is not to their benefit -- not even close, as zero of these devices are in the consumers' hands at this point. Nevertheless, eventually it will happen.

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In the short term there will only be mild savings with ebook textbooks. The publishing companies will maintain their system as long as they can. But ultimately the system breaks down when there is zero (or negligible) cost of production. Just like MP3s undermined the record label business. It's not (just) because of piracy, but because free access to distribution means that many more people can enter the market without middle-men who drive up the cost and limit access to certain content.

10 years from now, when professors can self-publish their textbooks and distribute them directly to the students at minimal cost, and are no longer controlled by the publishers, that's when we'll start seeing real change, both in terms of savings for college students, and maybe even in terms of academic freedom.

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