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U.S. State Department Buys 2500 Kindles ($16.5 Million No-Bid Contract) For Libraries and Ed Centers

Filed by on June 11, 2012

UPDATE 2 (6/13/12) More Information from the State Department in a New Report by Laura Hazard Owen

UPDATE (6/12/12): Both NextGov and paidContent have updated their reports on this story with information from the U.S. State Dept. 

From NextGov:

“The State Department awarded a $16.5 million contract to Amazon to stock designated libraries and U.S.-friendly educational centers around the world with 2,500 Kindle e-Readers, procurement databases show.”

“Kindles were seen as the only appropriate devices for this contract, which was not opened for competitive bidding. The devices will aid those seeking to study English and learn about America.”

[Clip]

“Competing devices such as the Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader Daily and Kobe e-Reader were unsuitable as they couldn’t offer the same the text-to-speech function, battery life and global Wi-Fi connectivity, according to a government document.”

FBO Database Record for Contract

Read the Complete Article

See Also: Why is the U.S. State Department paying Amazon $16.5 million for 2,500 Kindles? (via paidContent)

DOS-Amazon (Kindle) Jusitification and Approval

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.

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  1. Why the U.S. State Department is paying Amazon $16.5 million for 2,500 Kindles — paidContent says:
    June 11, 2012 at 2:10 pm

    […] news was first reported by NextGov and picked up by Infodocket. If you like this story, please share […]

  2. Why is the U.S. State Department paying Amazon $16.5 million for 2,500 Kindles? — paidContent says:
    June 11, 2012 at 4:26 pm

    […] news was first reported by NextGov and picked up by Infodocket. If you like this story, please share […]

  3. U.S. State Department pays $6,600 each for Amazon Kindles that retail for $189 - Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Conservatives, Liberals, Third Parties, Left-Wing, Right-Wing, Congress, President - Page 2 - City-Data Forum says:
    June 13, 2012 at 12:43 am

    […] well as licensed 3rd party commercial content, worldwide, via WiFi *and* 3G for in-the-field use: U.S. State Department Buys 2500 Kindles ($16.5 Million No-Bid Contract) For Libraries and Ed Centers… There really is no story here, just another fraudulent story like the $10 […]

  4. The Digital Reader - The Best News and Info on eReaders and Tablets says:
    June 13, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    […] doesn’t care either (it’s not like anyone else could fill the contract, after all).viaimage by epSos.de /**/ Tags:22 Comments so far ↓ Paul Kater // Jun 11, 2012 at 1:42 pm […]