The effect of e-readers such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes and Nobel’s Nook and Apple’s iPad on how college students purchase college textbooks is still fairly unknown. New technology called electronic paper allows words to be displayed on a screen that mimics traditional book paper. E-paper, as it is called, is anecdotally said to be easier on the eyes than previous generations of electronic display screens. E-book readers also offer versatility since books can be purchased and downloaded anywhere with an Internet connection. Some e-readers have a wireless capability, which makes it easy to add books to customers’ digital libraries.

The e-reader market is huge and growing. In 2009, the number of e-reader units shipped was twenty-two million. Outside the United States, that number was five million. In 2010, it is projected to be twelve million. By 2018, the projected value of the e-reader market is $9.6 billion.

College students now have access to a growing range of textbooks from major publishers. In May of 2009, Amazon partnered with textbook publishers Cengage Learning, Pearson and Wiley to provide digital textbooks at six universities: Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Pace, Princeton, Reed College, and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Students can now purchase and use textbooks without the problems of weight or cost. School officials hope that the advent of e-reader technology use among students will reduce both the costs of textbooks and the amount of paper used per student.

Do you think that e-readers and e-books will become the “norm” for the college textbook market? Do you think the transition will be gradual?

This entry was posted on Friday, May 21st, 2010 at 7:08 pm and is filed under College News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.