iPad textbooks - not such a good deal?

In an earlier post I wondered why publishing companies would be so willing to sell $50 - $100 educational textbooks for $14.99. A post on Mashable explains why this isn't as good a deal as it seems.

I won't go into all the details because you can read it for yourself. A lot hinges on who owns the iPad and the textbooks. If schools had to buy an iPad for every student so that they could use textbooks purchased from the iTunes store then it would cost $27 billion, calculated by multiplying the number of students in the US by the price of the iPad. Bear in mind that iPads will last four or maybe five years, so this is a recurring cost for schools too. It seems unlikely to happen.

Who owns the textbook on the iPad? This is where it gets interesting. Apparently, a textbook has to be linked to a student's own iTunes account. So although the school may purchase it, only the student it is linked to can use it. This means that each year the school has to buy a whole new set of textbooks for the new students coming through.

With traditional paper books the student hands in the text book at the end of the year and the teacher hands them out next year to the next lot of students. This is why publishers can afford to sell iPad textbooks so cheaply. A paper book gets re-used year after year whereas an iPad textbook has to be purchased new every year. Over four or five years it can actually work out more expensive for schools to purchase iPad textbooks instead of paper-based text books.

I knew there had to be a reason why iPad textbooks were so cheap. It seems that publishers aren't so stupid after all. They'll actually make more money on textbooks than text books.

It will be very expensive for schools to buy iPads and textbooks, which could prevent them from becoming as successful as Apple would like everyone to believe. I think the main benefit will be for children of well-off parents with the money to buy iPads and textbooks for all their children. I can't see schools footing the bill.