State Dept. Cancels $16.5M Kindle Contract

itwbennett writes "The U.S. Department of State will be canceling a $16.5 million Amazon order that included 2,500 Kindle Touch e-readers, 50 pieces of content, and 'required provision of a secure, centrally managed content distribution and management platform.' The department said that it will be re-examining its requirements for the program. Those requirements had called for a single-function device with text-to-speech, a 'battery life of no less than about 8 hours of continuous reading or approximately 7.5 hours of video playback,' and free Wi-Fi. The Kindle was the only project that met that original set of requirements."

That can't be...

[kenh]

A federal procurement contract with a set of requirements that can only be satisfied by one vendor?

Unheard of!

Reconsidered

[guttentag]

The state department realized it was going to cost a lot more than originally expected since they'll have to pay sales tax by the time the shipment is ready.

Re:Let's cheer for No-bid contracts

[sizzzzlerz]

Yeah. I'll be battle-hardened to withstand 20G shock, survive submersion in seawater to 500 feet depth, be rad-hard, and have full-up mil spec documentation. It's yours for $127,343.36 per copy. Do you need the HumVee mounting kit as well?

Re:$6600 per Kindle!

[aardvarkjoe]

$16.5 million divided by 2500 = $6600.

Even though that includes some content and services on top of the Kindle itself, I don't see how it reaches $6600 per unit without most of it being waste and kickbacks.

Maybe they forgot to select the "free super saver shipping" option.

Re:$6600 per Kindle!

[PPH]

Yeah. You'd think that this was a contract to procure hammers or toilet seats or something like that.