Amazon unveils Kindle Textbook Rental

Just in time for the back-to-school shopping season, Amazon has announced Monday morning its new Kindle Textbook Rental which will allow students to save up to 80 percent on its retail prices of textbooks. Students can rent out ebooks from the Kindle Store instead of buying them the traditional way. Amazon says that tens of thousands of textbooks are available as students start the 2011 school year. Rental length options equally abundant ranging between 30 to 360 days.

Students only pay for the time they need a text book and can extend rentals in specific time periods, like a single day or even convert a rental to purchase it at a discounted rate. Additionally, students can even access their notes and highlights after their rental period ends by visiting Amazon’s website.

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What’s interesting is that Amazon is taking on an almost hotel approach to its rental rates as they will depend on the time frame in which the student chooses. Amazon will be providing a calendar feature that will show rental prices in a pop-up.

The purchase of cumbersome textbooks during college can sometimes be one of the largest expenditures a student can make throughout their education and Amazon is hoping its Kindle Textbook Rental program will be extremely lucrative. The company already announced that it will launch a free version of its Kindle Lending Library later this year so we can imagine consumers will be keeping an eye on this sector of the business.