Some of the main issues I hear from critics of E-books is that it would be too expensive to switch from the current model and that e-books are not widely available to handle the switch. In the case for college education, both arguments no longer stand up.
To address cost first,McGraw-Hill, one of the largest publishers of college textbooks, claims that cost reduction from e-book would be drastic. Rik Kranenburg, president of McGraw-Hill’s Higher Education, points out that most McGraw-Hill e-textbooks sell for about 60 percent of the cost of their print versions. Not only is the myth of e-books being an expensive technological switch debunked, it is true that e-books could help curb the incessant and seemingly endless skyrocketing of college education costs.
The latter concern that e-books aren't widely available enough to match the varying demands that print technology satisfies is also false. Here are some statistics and industry insight on the expanding e-book market:
"The market for digital books … has been roughly doubling every 18 months,” says Andrew Savikas, O’Reilly Media’s vice president of digital initiatives.
Trade wholesale electronic-book revenue was more than $37 million in the second quarter of 2009, compared to just $11.6 million in Q2 2008, according to the International Digital Publishing Forum
More than 12 million e-books have been downloaded by the Stanza e-reader iPhone app, which turned one-year old in July.
HarperCollins: Ninety-five percent of the publisher’s titles are released in digital format, and same-month e-book sales have increased as much as 400 percent (June 2009 vs. June 2008).
Chapman University what are you waiting for? With the technology readily available and the student body agitated over the rising costs of tuition, there is no better time than now to stand up as a leader in higher education and make the switch to e-books.
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