A tablet replacing an exercise book is not innovation, it's just a different way to make notes.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I don't think tablets are where we should be focused. But I do think they could end up being an efficient way of delivering textbooks. They're just not really that, yet. There's all sorts of poisons and mined minerals and carnage that goes on to make a tablet. Way more than to print a book. Or a bunch of books.
What's really interesting is the introduction of the tablet - not just the iPad, but the Nook and the Kindle. While they aren't going to solve all of our problems, I do think they make it easier for people to pause, linger, read and really process very important ideas.
We're in an inflection point where it's cheaper to learn to read on a tablet computer than it is to learn to read on paper. And that being the case, it's only a matter of time before every 6-year-old kid has a tablet computer, and we know for a fact, 3- to 4-year-old kids are using tablets and iPads, and 75 and 80 year olds are using them.
Students do everything on laptops these days, so I definitely think electronic books are a trend that's going to expand.
Tablets generally have made it pretty obvious that magazines have a new lease on life.
In my view the tablet and the PC are different. You can do things with the tablet if you are not encumbered by the legacy of the PC.
What the iPad does is it opens people's minds to a new way of doing things. They're actually thirsting for it.
The tablet is not mainstream. Reading off the screen is not mainstream.
It's interesting that the book publishing industry, on the iPad, has much more flexibility than the music industry had.
One thing I often talk about in my business is that an eBook is not like a print book: it's very, very different. It's organic. It's changing.