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Comment by baconner | Hacker News Reader

+1 for the $15 price cap on textbooks -10 for the cost of devices needed to use them.

I believe that price cap only applies to the current High School Textbooks. It's university textbooks where the price gets really crazy.

I assure you, high school texts are not much cheaper.

I can testify to that. When I worked in SFUSD they had just adopted a new Algebra 1 text book that was probably four times as big as the books in our days. The book was full of random full-page images of things like giraffes. I remember telling my students to be careful with the books as the replacement cost was listed at $120. However, as much as I see the current textbook industry as predatory racketeering that needs to go, I also oppose IPADs in schools and consistently advise schools against purchasing them. As far as k-12 education goes, netbooks are vastly superior technologies at a fraction of the cost.

Exactly. This is great and all, but the easiest solution to the over-priced textbook system is $14.99 textbooks that can be printed and re-printed as needed, not $15 that require a delicate, pricey device to view.

about $500 for an iPad + 10 iBooks is $649. 10 Text Books would have been about $900...

But the textbooks would likely be in circulation longer than the iPad.

Fair point. Total cost may be lower with this approach than the current situation where textbook manufacturers leverage their position and IMO significantly overcharge their often captive audience. So assuming the ipads can be kept in working order as long as paper books its cheaper.

But its not as cheap as it could be if the format was open so other device manufacturerers could compete to build the best low cost hardware for schools. As it stands its mainly just moving the lions share of the income from textbook publishers to apple.

The right thing to do IMO is to focus on a standard open format so there can be increased competition not just on the cost of the books but on the hardware as well. Schools need sustainable barganing power to get the best materials for their students now and in the future. Vendor lock in takes that leverage away.

Such open textbook innovation is already happening without apple. I applaud Apple's effort to innovate on the format to provide richer more teacher customizable content but I can't get behind the lock in even if its somewhat cheaper up front.

You've just missed two critical points:

1) The point of iPad learning isn't words on paper, it's finding new ways to engage students using platforms that naturally excite them. By claiming what we need is "cheap words on cheap paper", you're essentially ignoring all technology. Even paper was too expensive for schools in the past, and technology will catch up.

2) Ebooks reach MUCH further than paper. Is your biology book available in rural India? With smartphone penetration in the developing world hitting all time highs and expected to expand even more dramatically, this kind of system opens up the possibility for globalizing education and giving any school with this device great tools. Will the iPad/iDevice lead the charge in the developing world? Probably not, but this is opening the doors, defining the systems and getting the entire chain into it, from publishers, to authors, to teachers and students. It's a great first step.

I wouldn't say I ignored it, just thinking of it a bit differently.

This iPad thing is where technology is going. It's good, no doubt. But as far as disrupting the textbook industry, we seem to be skipping a few steps. Cheap textbooks have to appear before cheap textbooks on electronic devices, and we don't really have that yet.

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