In fact, they’ve broken through the flood barrier. According to the Wall Street Journal, McGraw-Hill Education, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt K-12, Pearson Education, and Kaplan have all reached iBook deals with Apple this week. Some are also in negotiations with ScrollMotion to develop their interactive textbooks. We predicted that the introduction of the iPad could change how we see digital textbooks and the education industry as a whole. We also think that education has the most potential for this product.

If you think about it, the average college student spends $400+ on textbooks every semester. Going digital would help save money across the board and make the hippies a little happier, too. No, really, the environmental effects could be masterful, and depending on what kind of deals we’re looking at here, college students might actually have a little more money for beer. Just imagine the headlines: “Apple’s iPad allows students to remain drunk longer,” “The iPad is why I flunked out freshman year,” “I don’t need a girlfriend; I have my iPad!” Hopefully that last one is a little extreme… hopefully.

High school, junior high, elementary school (maybe): a one-time $499 investment for each child is less than what a school would typically spend each year in textbooks and supplemental materials. Obviously, we have to factor in the cost of the digital textbooks, but each device could theoretically be re-used the next year with a different set of students… that would leave only the cost of digital textbooks. You always have to allow for maintenance and upkeep, but wrap that up with some sort of local insurance plan and you’re set to go. I’m sure local repair shops would be happy to replace the glass for a school if a student happened to drop it. Think of how many jobs that would create. ;) All in all, we find the iPad a wonderful concept for education — we can also guarantee that the government won’t get it. Our education system is so messed up and underfunded that buying a piece-of-crap Dell laptop scares them. Did you detect the irony in that statement? That’s a topic for a different blog…

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