Here is the textbook that I adopted for my night programming class I teach:
http://www.amazon.com/Java-Introduct...5891724&sr=8-2
List Price: $115 (a lot!)
Amazon Price: $89.83 (with free shipping)
Amazon used Price: $79.94
Amazon sell-back price: $64.49 (in amazon credit towards another purchase)
Here is the "publisher's" eTextbook:
http://www.mypearsonstore.com/bookst...sbn=0132162709
You can buy from them for $115 (also with free shipping)
Or you can buy their "unbound" format for $74.75
OR, you rent the eTextbook for $45.99 for 180 days.
Rent. They don't make it clear but that is what the CourseSmart eTextbook is.
What do you guys think? Is this form of eTextbook a good deal.
The prices of textbooks are always higher (like double) than books you find at Barnes and Noble because there are only a couple publishers and you HAVE to buy textbooks where Barnes and Noble books are almost always elective purchases with LOTS of different publishers. They will say that textbooks have low volume and printing cost are high..... Well that is the same for a wood carving book you could find at B&N with the same number of pages for less than half the cost of the book I adopted. A LOT more people are going to buy the average college textbook than a wood carving book.
I suppose Apple could make some deal with the one or two college textbook publishers for iBooks, but I think it would be better to have them start their own publishing company. They basically already have this with iBooks but you don't find a lot of textbooks (yet) in iBooks. If Apple could find a way to cut straight to the professors who write the books and compete with the big boys with iBooks that DON'T expire, that would be better for students and education in general.
JTA