Apple Poised to Benefit from U.S. Government's Five-Year Push for Digital Textbooks

Seems like more government waste. There is nothing wrong with ordinary textbooks, is there?

While I normally would agree with you, paying $300+ every semester for books seems like a unnecessary waste.

Great timing on Apple's part!

Never mind that, they've got the next 5 years all figured out, at the very least.

Seems like more government waste. There is nothing wrong with ordinary textbooks, is there?

Other than the fact that they are big, heavy, hard to store, don't update, and are outrageously overpriced, no. My summer job was moving books from the local schools and it is a HUGE pain. Digital books would benefit schools immensely.

Good, it's about time. Heavy, expensive non interactive textbooks are unnecessary relics in the digital age.

While I like the idea of digital textbooks, the iPad is $500 before you even have a single book loaded on it. Since the books cost $14.99 and assuming you get the entire book instead of just chapters, you are looking at $630 just to provide six textbooks on a device that will last between 3 - 5 years. The cost of the average K-12 textbook is ~$60 to $80, which puts the cost around $360 - $420 and will last between 3 - 5 years. Even if the government does subsidize the iPads, schools are government funded entities anyway, so, as a taxpayer, you are still paying more for something that does the same job as a regular textbook.

Plus you will need insurance on the iPads for when they break or get stolen. And do you really want your 8 year old walking to school with $500 worth of electronics on them, making them a potential target for thieves? How many people would steal a bunch of textbooks versus how many people would steal an iPad?


I think the digital textbook idea will eventually replace printed textbooks, but the cost has to come down considerably before it can feasibly replace a printed book.

The other thing I worry about is that the area data density and total display area is a lot lower for the iPad textbooks as compared to a printed textbook. This makes comparisons harder and forces the authors to break ideas into smaller and smaller junks of information while emphasizing a "powerpoint" or presentation style of data display versus a the paragraph writing styles that tend to have better information and context transfer capabilities.

Overall, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed, but it is good to see that we are starting the process.

I'm sorry, but realistically, most textbooks do not need to change every year at the K-12 level.

Yes, but you still just READ them. Have you seen the free text book? The videos and interactivity are invaluable, IMO. It's becoming clear that children learn in many different ways. My son is developmentally disabled and while he knows how to read, it is extremely difficult for him. Those who are resistant to this leap forward in learning are not getting the full picture. You are not replacing a paper text book with the same book on an iPad. You are replacing it with an amazing enhancement to the entire learning process.

While I normally would agree with you, paying $300+ every semester for books seems like a unnecessary waste.

Shoot, I spent upwards of $500 some semesters, and I was a lowly business major. Some of my pre-med / bio friends were closer to $1k. As long as they lower the cost of the e-textbooks in conjunction with moving to an iPad as the primary "book," this is actually going to be a financial benefit to college students.

A $499 iPad at the beginning of your first year would more than pay for itself if they can reduce prices of the books by a substantial amount.

A couple of problems

I greatly admire the direction Apple has gone with e-textbooks, and I know that if I were back in college I'd use it for that. That said, there are some things to consider when discussing the continuing use of textbooks., especially in elementary schools.

Currently, paper textbooks are handed back and re-used, thus saving on the need to buy new ones every year. In terms of education tax dollars, textbooks are often assigned per grade level, and change from curriculum to curriculum. Perhaps Apple could come up with a system that allows schools to hold unlimited license to a set of textbooks per school class, which would be deleted from students' iPads at the end of the year, so that incoming students to the same class could use them.

I would also suggest that the purchase of iPads themselves be the responsibility of parents, rather than the school system (thinking about tax dollars again). The reason: computer equipment of any type is subject to upgrading/replacement on an ongoing basis.

Maybe that's one of things Steve and Mr. Obama talked about. ^_^;

Seems like more government waste. There is nothing wrong with ordinary textbooks, is there?

Aside from the extreme expense in maintaining and purchasing the textbooks, not to mention the fact that most texts aren't updated for those very reasons, it's not waste.

Digital textbooks will allow for frequent updates/revisions, lower costs in an already expensive market (esp once higher education textbooks are revamped as they are outrageous) and it will be a benefit long term as costs will lower thereby taking the pressure of state/public schools in funding for much needed textbooks to K-12 grades.

Currently, teachers are using their own personal funds to acquire textbooks for their students due to outrageous financial local/state cutbacks. There are many schools engaging in text book fairs; schools swap books that are needed. That is a very sad statement regarding the lack of care from our local and federal government in educating the generations to come.

People may view this as "socialism," well, we have socialism in our police force and emergency systems, it's been in our educational system since day one. If we don't look out for each other in the education and job market, we will continue to slip globally and will not be able to compete in the international markets. America doesn't realize what other first world nations who have surpassed us already do, that a collective whole/country is only as strong as its weakest link. Helping others to achieve better through financial and educational support should be a primary goal in solving possible economic downtime when we have a populace that can be gainfully employed. It's a "big picture" scenario, and it starts with the little picture, revamping how we educate our nation.

Just some thoughts :)

(not to mention it may allow for more regulation against certain politically parties from modifying textbooks and thus history as was documented and done with certain past administrations)

Good, it's about time. Heavy, expensive non interactive textbooks are unnecessary relics in the digital age.