While following a live stream of the presentation, I was trying to determine who the customer is, and I still don't know.
For college students, I think this makes complete sense from both an economical and practical standpoint. The iPad is a useful device beyond being a textbook reader and $15 to buy a textbook for class would be fantastic (I might pay $15 to get rid of some of the textbooks cluttering my shelf).
I don't think this college textbooks are an interesting space, however, since individuals are largely responsible for purchasing their own books. Disrupting institutional buying is game changing especially in a world where many if not most school districts are facing budget pressure year after year. This is who Algebra I, Geometry, and Biology textbooks are for, not college students. If they are the primary customer of these resources, I would expect a clear advantage in both the product and the price - similar to how digital encyclopedias and wikipedia completely eliminated the business model of the multi-volume, hard copy encyclopedia. The product appears, at face value, clearly better: up to date content, interactivity, multimedia, zero weight and volume. As far as I can tell, the price, however, is significantly higher than the incumbent product with no "results" to justify the increased price.
As someone who is interested in selling software solutions to customers, I find pitches like this interesting. I also come from a family of teachers (wife, parents, in-laws, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) and feel I can empathize with school's position as a potential customer.
For college students, I think this makes complete sense from both an economical and practical standpoint. The iPad is a useful device beyond being a textbook reader and $15 to buy a textbook for class would be fantastic (I might pay $15 to get rid of some of the textbooks cluttering my shelf).
I don't think this college textbooks are an interesting space, however, since individuals are largely responsible for purchasing their own books. Disrupting institutional buying is game changing especially in a world where many if not most school districts are facing budget pressure year after year. This is who Algebra I, Geometry, and Biology textbooks are for, not college students. If they are the primary customer of these resources, I would expect a clear advantage in both the product and the price - similar to how digital encyclopedias and wikipedia completely eliminated the business model of the multi-volume, hard copy encyclopedia. The product appears, at face value, clearly better: up to date content, interactivity, multimedia, zero weight and volume. As far as I can tell, the price, however, is significantly higher than the incumbent product with no "results" to justify the increased price.
As someone who is interested in selling software solutions to customers, I find pitches like this interesting. I also come from a family of teachers (wife, parents, in-laws, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) and feel I can empathize with school's position as a potential customer.