The much awaited Apple tablet "iPad" is finally out of the bag, and sure enough, it's fully equipped with an e-reader program and will have access to over 8,000+ textbooks through CourseSmart right out of the box.  The iPad will undoubtedly open new doors for textbooks - audio, video, real-time data and more. But for now, one thing that it won't do is make textbooks affordable.

First of all, no matter what textbook reading device you're on, affordability boils down to the cost of content.  Given publishers' track record with print textbooks, it's no surprise that digital textbooks are expensive, too. In our last report, we uncovered that e-books are scarcely less expensive than used books, and actually more expensive once resale value is factored in.  Furthermore, e-textbooks expire, leaving students no option to save their texts, and are so mired in DRM and other restrictions that they're impractical in many cases.

On top of that, it's adding insult to injury for students to fork over another chunk of change for the reading device. The iPad costs $499-$829, which translates to a semester to a year's worth of textbooks for the average student!  Fronting that kind of money won't even be an option for a lot of students who struggle to afford textbooks in the first place.

Rather than putting emphasis solely on the tech, the market needs to think about how to help students take advantage of it affordably.  A great example is creating more open-source textbooks, which would reduce the cost of content dramatically.