Kindle English Program Canceled

Amazon's Kindle Fire

Just days before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos were to launch a partnership offering English lessons to young learners around the world using 35,000 Kindle readers, the program was canceled.

The Guardian reports that the U-turn was an embarrassment for the State Department, which said additional research was needed for the program.

The deal would have meant the purchase of 35,000 Kindle readers over five years, pre-loaded with some content. The contract value was $16.5 million.


One possible reason behind the cancellation was objections from the National Federation of the Blind, which claims Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle devices are not fully accessible to the visually impaired.

Read more at the Guardian.