Textbooks are often a luxury for college senior Vatell Martin. The accounting major at Virginia State University got by in several courses with study groups and professors lectures. "Its not that I didnt want to buy,"he says. "Sometimes, I just didnt have the money for a $ 200 book. "VSU knows Martin isnt the only one. More than half of its students routinely skip buying textbooks. For a solution, the school is turning to e-textbooks. [ B ] VSU partnered with Flat World Knowledge, a start-up publisher that produces exclusively written e-books with "open" content that can be modified by professors. In a trial with 14 business courses,students would be required to pay $20 and receive a Flat World e-book and digital learning supplements. The university and a local grant have been covering the cost, so far. "Thats nothing.Its what I put in my gas tank," says Martin, who participated in the trial. "If I was walking into a discussion on a topic, I can just download and take out the book and read it on my phone. " [ C] With their promise of ubiquity (无处不在), convenience and perhaps affordability, e-textbooks have arrived in fits and starts throughout college campuses. And publishers and book resellers are spending millions attracting students to their online stores and e-reader platforms as mobile technology improves the readability of the material on devices such as tablet computers. Silicon Valley start-ups,such as Inkling and Kno, are also aggressively reinventing textbooks with interactive graphics, videos and social-media features. [ D] Despite emerging attempts at innovation, the industry has been slowed by clumsy technology, the lasting appeal of print books, skeptical students who search online for cheaper alternatives, and customer confusion stemming from too many me-too e-textbook platforms that have failed to stand out. [ E ] The late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, believed textbooks to be an $ 8 billion market ripe for "digital destruction," biographer Walter Issacson writes in Steve Jobs. Apple is expected to make an announcement Thursday about its new education products. The market is small but growing. Sales for e-textbooks in the U. S. higher education market grew 44. 3% to $267. 3 million in 2011,according to Simba Information, a publishing industry research firm. Print still rules [ F] So far, students have been less than impressed and more likely to choose print books. About 11% of college students have bought e-textbooks, according to market research firm Student Monitor.Availability isnt the chief problem. Most popular textbooks have a digital version, and theyre available online. But students have largely stayed away because the most readily available technology today -- PDF (portable docmnent format) or other document reader versions of the print book—is clumsy and eye-straining to read. [ G ] When Andrea Soto, a freshman biology major at the University of Maryland, bought Principles of Biology, the $192 price tag came with a free online version. She prefers the touchable presence of a thick book on her lap. "You cant highlight or underline things in the e-book. I find it more of a trouble," she says. However, digital books arent necessarily cheaper, either. While priced lower than new print books, theyre often more expensive than buying or renting used books online, says Kathy Mickey, an analyst at Simba. A federally funded pilot study at Daytona State College in Florida found that some students who rented an e-textbook paid only a dollar less than students who bought a print edition. And e-textbook users couldnt sell the book back after the class ended. [ H ] Despite e-textbooks shortcomings, most agree that the print market is ripe for a technological overhaul (彻底改革). Prices of new books are rising sharply. Authors complain about used book sales that dont generate royalties. Professors and students axe annoyed at new editions that seemingly add little in content VS the previous one. [ I] "This is an industry thats failing everyone--parents, authors, professors, and students," says Brad Wheeler, chief information officer at Indiana University, which is running a program that distributes cheaper e-textbooks but requires all students in the class to buy. Publishers are eager for a quicker transition to the format because e-textbooks cost less to publish and would generate income from every student who buys one. Digital books cant be resold, at least, not legally. "Wed prefer that all of it to go digital," says Vineet Madan, senior vice President of new ventures at McGraw-Hill Education. "There isnt a secondary market for e-books. " Seeking market niche (商机) [ J ] If current e-textbooks are mostly unappealing, whats next？ Like online music in its infancy, the textbook industrys key players--publishers, resellers, bookstores, tech companies, even some universities--are all scrambling to offer their digital solutions, an effort that has only intensified with the arrival of tablet computers and app stores. "Everybody and their brothers are coming out with an e-book platform," says I am Williams, director of strategic learning solutious at Wiley, a textbook publisher. [ K] They all agree on one thing: The quality of e-textbooks must improve dramatically. More value added, interactive features will keep students interested and spur sales, they say. Tablet computers are a key stimulus in this endeavor. At Kno, tablets have allowed the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company to embed interactive tools onto an existing e-textbook in a more intuitive way, for example, the ability to write directly on the book with a finger stroke or tap on a keyword for notes. "Tablet was a needed development," says Knos founder Osman Rashid. Despite threats to their print book sales, university bookstores are also coming around to embracing e-books. Follett, which runs 930 university bookstores in North America, launched Follett CafeScribe last year, a cloud-based digital textbook platform. Publishers not on sidelines [L] Textbook publishers are partnering with universities for exclusive trials, buying stakes in start-ups and developing their own technologies. Last year, publisher Cengage launched MindTap, an e-book/ digital learning website that is now being tried by about 50 professors, says Bill Rieders, Cengages executive vice President of global new media. Instead of tables of content, MindTap provides "a learning path" that students can access for text, multimedia, self-assessment tools, quizzes and note sharing. [ M] Pearson has introduced a competing product, OpenClass. The cloud-based website means students can access information wherever theres an online connection--features social networking, and works with Google Apps for Education. Reed College in Portland, Ore. , is one of several universities that will test OpenClass this fall. [ N ] The CourseLoad trial has been in place since 2009 on a limited basis, with students receiving free books. It has been expanded to 130 courses this spring semester. Students now pay a discounted price for access to CourseLoad books and learning kits, typically "60% to70% " cheaper than new print books, Wheeler says. In exchange, students must pay a fee to enroll. Despite the lack of flexibility, school officials and students have embraced the low-cost approach, he says. The development of tablet computers is necessary to improve the e-textbooks quality.
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