BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Apple Sold 350K Digital Textbooks in Three Days, But What Comes Next?

This article is more than 10 years old.

Some may have scoffed at Apple's big textbook announcement last thursday, worrying that the tech giant's first major foray into education would either fail to make a giant impact on textbook sales or remain limited to the small number of students that could already afford Apple products.

Image via CrunchBase

But while the long-term effects of Apple's digital textbook service will take years to sort out, they've at least come out to a very strong start. They sold 350,000 textbooks in only three days, according to a recent report from Global Equities Research. In characteristic Apple fashion, they look like they may be able to emerge as the only dominant force in the market in no time at all.

“Our research indicates that Apple has a very strong following with Authors, Publishers, Faculty and Students and may capture 95% of Digital Textbook Market, while Amazon.com may only participate in the 5% of the market,” Analyst Trip Chowdhry wrote in the Global Equities Research report, according to Venturebeat.

It's encouraging news for the tech giant, though Apple's aim isn't so much to capture the entire digital textbook market as it is to capture the entire textbook market. Those sales went to early adopters and extant Ipad owners, and the textbook-utopian version of the future seems to have in mind will require a lot more activity -- namely large, institutional support. When it comes time for universities and colleges to start incorporating digital textbooks in a more serious way, Amazon and Microsoft will doubtless have their own dogs in the fight, and Apple's policy of locking their publishing into their own software ensures that peaceful co-existence won't be an option. The argument may come down to price and flexibility -- two things Apple has never been famous for.

K-12 education will come with a different set of challenges. Reform-minded charter schools and blended learning facilites will no doubt jump on Apple's bandwagon in little time, but it remains to be seen whether or not the long-term economics can be made to work against the more traditional dead tree affairs. The argument that digital textbooks will be ultimately less expensive than regular textbooks is there to be made, but its not a sure bet. $499 for an Ipad 2 is a steep price for anyone to pay, and there's no way one device could last much more than 2 years under the duress the average student is likely to inflict upon it.

$199 Kindle Fire, however, might be just the right price, even for schools with less resources to burn. Your move, Amazon.