Textbooks are an ideal first market for e-books. They're heavy, they're expensive, and you only need them for a short time, after which they have to be replaced with other textbooks. AND - e-text is searchable. Since students already carry laptops, there's no need to wait while customers buy another new gadget to read the format.
I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this application. I bet publishers are knowingly shunning this obvious market because they fear copying.
Carrying around all that weight is good exercise.
they're expensive
OMG, are you ever right about that!
New books in general are costly enough--but textbooks are a real racket--I suspect the people selling those books probably make more than most of the people who buy them ever will.
Criminal. Scandalous.
and you only need them for a short time
Imagine: some of the most expensive books any of us ever own--and they are not worth holding on to.
Something's wrong.
e-text is searchable.
Probably bad for students--makes it easier for them to cheat themselves out of learning by zeroing in on just what they need for an assignment, without bothering about the rest.
(Though I confess, I haven't much respect for much of what is passing for education these days--since most diplomas are really nothing more than proof to future employers that the holder is willing to obey and perform endless drudgery to be rewarded in the end by the mythical corporate carrot. Education that is really worth something, does not need a diploma: of itself, it empowers.)