Amazon is in a far better position to disrupt educational content distribution and content than Apple, by a wide margin. Heck, even INTEL's AppUp are in a better position. Apple may start this (after abandoning educational initiatives over a Decade ago), but, it will be others who reap the benefit. Why? Because they are not stuck at delivering to =< 10% of the overall market. Amazon, for one, has institutional purchasing already in place. You couple that with bulk licensing and Apple becomes insignificant.

To the critics: I agree, this will not revolutionize anything. Its technology already used by major publishers. But as Rhoads says above, its only a tool, and that is a good thing. Whether the classrooms adopt it or not, doesn't matter. Its a tool thats there if we choose to use it. That's what's great about freedom. If one class uses it but others don't, so what if you now have four textbooks to carry around plus an ipad. Isn't that better than 5 texbooks? Lets not forget Apple's easy to use interfaces and textbook interactivity that has yet to be seen anywhere else on such a universally used and market standard device.

Trevor, you must be new here—or at least new to how education sales work. First of all, a school or district that's going to buy iPads in quantity isn't going to pay $500. Apple sales people can wheel and deal with the best of them, so that won't be an issue. Whatever the final price ends up being, it'll be far less than what schools pay now for laptops and desktops. It's certainly disingenuous to suggest iPads will become obsolete each year; there's certainly enough hardware in today's iPad2 to keep it viable for the next few years. Apple has been good so far with iOS upgrades that run on current and older hardware; I expect that'll be the case with the iPad as well. Today's iPad 2 will run iOS 6 when that ships later this year. And it's likely a lower priced iPad 2 will stick around (a la the iPhone 4 vs. the iPhone 4S) after the iPad 3 is announced. Apple's been in education sales longer than any other hardware company; they know how to navigate the usual issues. The K-12 education sales cycle starts in the spring; I suspect iPads will be quite popular.

[...] Apple’s Big Problem: Pricing - Trevor Gilbert over at PandoDaily. [...]

What will soon matter is the Asus MeMO 370T quad-core at $250. Who needs Apple?

Why should the iPad be outdated every year? The book reader function on all of these e-reader devices is what does not need to change every year. So unless it if for something other than reading books the yearly upgrading is nonsense. And then there is the matter of the diminishing return point on computing. Is the only reason we need so much processing power is that the software is bloated and inefficient already. Where is the computing industry explaining the difference between compiled and interpreted code? What if these devices are as powerful as they need to be and more demanding apps should be run on a desktop anyway?

I seriously doubt Apple will sell its ipads for under $400. I think that Amazon will probably copy this and release an even better product and get people to buy the Kindle fire for $199 for their text book needs. Amazon already has book rentals and they already have most textbook publishers on board. When they start voting to bring in tablets at schools.. do you think they'll go for the $500 Ipads or the $200 Kindles?

Oh boy! Just you wait until MG reads this! We know how anything remotely anti-Apple lights a fire under MG. Be prepared to face the wrath Trevor! :)

iPads might get outdated each year, but they are not obsoleted or useless. New cars come out every year that are better than the previous year's, but that doesn't mean they need to be traded in. Even if you only keep an ipad for three years, and sell it for $50, it costs you $150 per year. You have to figure out how much cheaper the books are, and what's it worth to not have to carry those books around, and what other value the ipad versions provide (e.g., video). Publishers are idiots for avoiding e-books, or pricing them higher. They can't be re-sold or borrowed, and they cost next to nothing to distribute. There are no inventory risks, either. Yet, the publishers act as if pricing electronic books high or making them unavailable will block competition. the two main points of this post, cost of the ipad and the selection of available books, are problems all new technology platforms face when they are introduced (how many movies were available on DVD when it was introduced?). The cost will come down, and the library will grow.

Who pays? Where I live it's common for the annual budget referendum to take a few rounds of voting to pass. Each round usually means cuts in the education budget. Extracurriculars are already pay-to-play. if a town proposes to add hundreds of dollars per student for anything it's tough to pass. I foresee even more voter resistance if that funding is sought for a proprietary, locked-in textbook ecosystem.

I am not sure how this exactly revolutionizes the US school system. This merely a tool and a hammer doesn't build a house. Considering Pearson et al have already made text books w/ every element described in iBooks, I am really not sure how this is a revolution so much as an evolution. Instead of having Q&A's at the end of each chapter you take w/ a pen & paper, you perform the action on the screen. Instead of watching the video or other rich media via a supplied DVD on a school computer, you watch it on the iPad. There is no denying that iBook textbooks are a slick products, but they are still merely an evolved products. The Author software is hardly a revolution, as well. If you instead called the eBook a pdf document, you could easily start to make the comparison with Adobe's content creation tools. I do think you are correct on the fact that Apple greatly underestimates the bureaucracy at a local level. It is a system of self interest populated w/ people who may be without the skills needed to understand the logistics of an initiative such as iBooks. At the collegiate level I am not sure how this would be a price benefit, esp at the higher levels. As an underclassman, Amazon had already taken a lot of the cost out of text books along w/ text book rental services. As an upperclassman, I rarely used textbooks. Instead I used course packs in pdf form, research journals again in a pdf, or purchased actual academic research books which tended to be from small academic presses. So, the common thread is that I do not see iBooks being a revolutionary tool in college either. I think the big trojan horse is the pricing. Call me cynical but I just do not see how Pearson or any other major publishers is going to create this rich media experiences for $15 a pop. Textbooks are expensive because of the near monopoly held by the text book industry and the legislative lock in they enjoy. So I do not see how a migration to ebooks is going to dramatically lower pricing when it wasn't the physically of the book that drove the price point in the first place. So yeah, I think iBooks and the content creation package is a really nice product but there are a lot of gaps in Apple strategy so far.

You forgot educational discounts. Also, when traditional publishers are charging upwards of $60 a book, the iPad price looks rather good. Plus, there is instant roll-out. You don't have to wait for the books to come. Errors are updated easily. Have you ever seen textbooks that are missing pages, or have tons of errors? I have. It costs schools time and money. SInce most of the California schools have major budget problems (like Mt. Diablo just north of me), any way to cut costs is good. Heck, the San Ramon school district spent several millions on Solar panels for all the schools so it could save money in the long term on electricity. Long term meaning about 2 or 3 years from now when the panels pay for themselves. So, on the surface it looks stupid to spend millions on Solar panels (or iPads) when you really don't have the money (they didn't), but in a long term game it makes sense. Money saved in PG&E bills (the solar panel purchase) and money saved keeping books up to date (iPads) plus the extra bragging point about how the schools are using technology. It is amazing how School Administrators will talk up that stuff even when they aren't fully understanding it. Similar thinking is happening with regards to iPad purchases. Schools don't need the latest iPad 7 or 9 or whatever. They'd be happy with iPad 2s that could display the textbooks for 3 or 4 years. I do think that the smallest recommended size for an iPad 2 in education should be 16gigs. The free Earth textbook is about a gig, and that is only 44 pages. Though then again, one does not need a complete World History textbook that is hundreds of pages on their iPad. I'd imagine that when more textbooks are announced, they will be 100 page or less tombs rather than 500 page ones. Jesus, they just announced the thing and you want more books. They do have the support of the major textbook makers. I imagine by the fall there will be a plethora of books available. I'm sure you bitched about the iTunes store not having your favorite N-Sync album either when it first opened. I'm sure you could of written it differently. Kinda felt it was written by Gizmodo or something......yikes. I totally expect Apple to drop the price of the existing iPad 2 to $199 whenever the iPad 3 is announced. Apple makes health margins on its hardware when it is released. I can't think of a single instance of an Apple product being sold for a loss. And Apple's costs for making items generally goes DOWN when production is ramped up or has been going on for a while. So while it's not a farfetched rumor that Apple is going to keep the iPad 2 around while also selling an iPad 3. I'd also think that Apple will knock the price of an entry level iPad 2 with 8 gigs down to $199 just to stick it to Amazon (who is already selling Kindle Fires at a loss).