U.S. State Department Buys 2500 Kindles ($16.5 Million No-Bid Contract) For Libraries and Ed Centers
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.”
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“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
Filed under: Libraries, Publishing, Reports

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.