Textbooks Don’t Need To Fear IPad .. Yet

Last month, Apple launched iBooks 2 which set out to bring digital interactive textbooks to the iPad boasting attractive features like full-screen images, videos and interactive 3D objects. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, noted Apple’s intended impact on the textbook market:

“Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and the iPad may be our most exciting education product yet. With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world,” said Schiller. “Now with iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love.”

While the announcement excited students who already owned an iPad, iBooks 2 is still very much out of reach for the vast majority of students.  Aware of the monetary boundaries to their technology, Apple suggested schools replace computers with iPads to offset the costs, a point that a new infographic from OnlineTeachingDegree.com shows to be just as infeasible as an average student being about to purchase an iPad themselves.  As the infographic points out,  it would cost $27B to supply every US student with an iPad – a cost that most would agree could be better spent.