State Department speaks out on Amazon Kindle deal

Department of State spokesman Philippe Reines explained more about how the overseas English language program will work and clarified some things that aren’t included in the available public documents about buying Kindles.

First off, the State Department hasn’t yet signed a contract with Amazon; DoS has issued a request for proposals. Reines said that the State Department would spend $2.29 million in the first year of the program, and ”the $16.5 million over five years includes a maximum of 7,000 units per year for a total of 35,000 over five years, and content and to a lesser degree, shipping and some other associate costs.” Reines added that the “guaranteed obligation of $2.29 million” in the first year is “broken down by an obligation to purchase, at minimum, 2,500 units, which would be roughly half a million dollars.” The ad-free Kindle Touch 3G — specified in the J&A as the device that State would purchase — is $189. The J&A also says each Kindle should come with a power adapter and a case. Assuming that State gets a 10 percent discount on each device, as Reines told the Atlantic, and that the power adapter + case adds another $20 to each device, that’s $475,250 for Kindles. That leaves $1,814,750 for content, shipping and other costs. It’s a lot of money for content, especially since it appears that many of the e-books will be public domain.