They can accept Apple's prices or take their books elsewhere. Having to spend $15/student/year isn't much different from spending $100/student/5 years - the difference is the book belongs to the student, not the school. This means the student will have an ever growing library of every book they ever needed in school. Tax payers won't balk because the price is the same, and because their children get to keep their books in addition to their notes between school years for looking back on.
As a student in college, I've had enough of this BS. I last bought a textbook from the traditional system a year ago. I've found a variety of ways of getting what I need for free or super cheap since (IE, visiting the teacher - who gets free copies of the books from the publisher - and scanning copies of the pages I need.)
The question was, whether all of the necessary books are available. If they are, great. If not, they will go elsewhere. And since there is no elsewhere to go, they will stay with the old system.
honestly don't know if they have all the necessary books. They may, they may not. What I truthfully don't see is much incentive for them to go selling books at $15 a pop when $100 a pop seems to be working just fine.
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I'd think both would be much higher. No incentive really for a kid to steal a textbook, but an iPad is a high-value item, and one more fragile.
Initially, theft will likely be a bigger issue. But with iOS7 not allowing a restore once locked, what you essentially have stolen is a paperweight. And word will get around that schools, and maybe even students, can easily lock their devices permanently.
But I agree. No matter how you look at this, you'd have to burn a lot of textbooks to come up with the deficit of destroying just one iPad. Let's not also forget though that if the iPad is broken, Apple's replacement policy is $250. Perhaps these schools are getting a better deal? A couple of posters around page 2 also claimed that the sale price to the school (600 some odd dollars) included insurance in the deal. I can;t comment much on that fact.