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I happen to be in possession of a leaked copy of what Jeff Bezos plans to say on Wednesday as he introduces the new Amazon smart phone.
The big surprise is that mobile learning is prominently featured in Amazon’s product and strategy.
Text from the Amazon Phone Announcement:
Production Note: Jeff enters stage left to an adoring throng:
"Well howdy. Glad you could all make it to our little Amazon event.
I haven’t had this warm a greeting since I first walked into the Washington Post newsroom and announced that all reporters and editors are now eligible for a free Prime membership.
Today we are hear to talk about our new Amazon Kindle phone. A little thing that we are calling the kPhone.
kPhone. Get it? The Kindle Phone.
Like the iPhone, but we replaced the “i” with a “k”.
We think that the letter “k” is much cooler than the letter “i”.
We at Amazon think that the kPhone will make everyone forget about our little disagreement with that snooty French publisher. The kPhone is going to be huge.
The kPhone and our Amazon Prime program work together seamlessly. The kPhone provides in-app purchasing from the Amazon, Kindle, and Audible apps. Amazon Prime members, who receive a deep discount on the kPhone and monthly cellular fees, can stream Prime music and video with the touch of a button from the kPhone.
What is really revolutionary about the Amazon kPhone is the investment in mobile learning that this new device represents.
Amazon has been secretly working with a range of educational platform and open education providers to build high quality learning apps for the kPhone.
At launch, kPhone users will have an updated set of mobile apps from Canvas, Blackboard, and D2L that take advantage of the kPhone’s ability to download content and to display learning materials in 3D.
We all know that mobile apps for the major learning platforms have never quite lived up to the promise of a mobile learning revolution.
At Amazon, we are determined to change that, as we will be investing in long-term partnerships with a range of edtech companies to evolve and refine their platforms.
Amazon has also been secretly working with edX and Coursera to develop native open learning apps for the kPhone.
The new kPhone edX and Coursera apps improve the learning experience by enabling a full set of feature and functions, including content download and full in-app assessments and forums.
Today I am also announcing that Amazon Prime members will be eligible for up to 6 verified open online learning certificates per year at no additional cost.
Amazon Prime members can now not only enjoy the benefits of streaming music and video, they can also get a free education and an alternative credential.
The investments in mobile learning apps have been complemented by a new Kindle Learning Analytics app that we are also releasing. This analytics app tracks learning behavior across all the learning apps on the phone.
Lifelong learners can set goals for the amount of time spent learning, the number of modules completed, and the range of competencies that are reached.
This new Kindle Learning Analytics app is also tied in with the badging platform Credly, a set-up that will enable the automatic provisioning of badges based on mobile learning behaviors.
Here at Amazon we think that education will be the business of the 21st century.
We know that tens of millions of people in the emerging economies will be seeking post-secondary educational opportunities, and that countries such as India and China cannot possibly build enough bricks-and-mortar campuses to keep up.
The emerging world will need to leapfrog the existing post-secondary model to one that is online, virtual and mobile.
We hope to participate in building tomorrow’s global middle class of future Amazon shoppers by accelerating the mobile learning revolution with the kPhone.
Why are we investing so heavily in mobile learning with the new Amazon kPhone?
To be honest, we saw an opportunity. To our surprise neither Apple or Google has seemed to make mobile learning a core priority with their iOS and Android devices.
We think that Amazon and the kPhone can set the new standard for mobile learning.
When does the kPhone ship? We will be taking orders on Amazon.com today.”
Production Note: Jeff bows deeply. Drinks in the adulation. Exits stage right.
