Survey: iPad adoption sluggish but e-textbooks booming

Electronic textbooks and computing tablets have a lot of buzz, but the old bound volumes and desktop models still dominate on four-year college campuses, according to a new survey.

The Apple iPad, which many pegged as the device that would finally make electronic textbooks appealing to students, is enjoying a lot of hype but less uptake, according to data collected this spring by Student Monitor, a market research firm.

Sixty-six percent of respondents to the firm?s latest survey -- which queried 1,200 full-time students at four-year colleges and universities -- said the iPad was ?in? on their campuses. ?But fewer than 6 percent actually own an iPad, down from 8 percent in last spring?s survey; and only 1 percent of students plan to purchase an iPad in the next year.

Meanwhile, rumors of the demise of the immobile desktop computer have been greatly exaggerated; 19 percent of students own a desktop unit, compared to 10 percent who own a tablet device. And more said they plan in the next year to buy a new desktop computer (1.5 percent) than said they plan to purchase a tablet (1.4 percent). Laptops continue to dominate campus computing, with 88 percent of students owning one.

But even as iPad adoption appears to have stagnated, e-textbooks show signs of finally gaining traction. Twenty percent of students in this year?s survey either bought or ?rented? an e-textbook this spring. Over all, electronic versions accounted for 9 percent of all textbook purchases.

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Print textbooks are nowhere close to extinction, though. Used print editions accounted for the lion?s share of textbook purchases, at 45 percent. New print editions accounted for 31 percent of purchases, with print rentals clocking in at 15 percent.

The most common motivation for buying an e-textbook was still a mandate from the professor, with 32 percent of students reporting that they bought a digital version under direction of an instructor.

Nevertheless, students? allegiance to print appears to be eroding; among those who did not purchase a digital text, only 39 percent said they ?prefer traditional print textbooks? ? down from 50 percent two years ago and 59 percent three years ago.

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Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/05/survey-ipad-adoption-sluggish-e-textbooks-booming

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