I remember hearing about these guys a few months ago. Inkling is the first company to work with all the major textbook companies to redefine what a textbook is, and how it can be used (and paid for) more efficiently on a tablet device. Take a look at the video below to get a feel for what a textbook looks like in this environment.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxthBN3Pb88&]
The head guy of Inkling presented the product at The Wall Street Journal's D9 conference last week. If you have the time and this sort of stuff interests you, it'd be worth your effort to check out his presentation and explanation. You can do so at the bottom of the page here.
They have an interesting business approach and seem to have the right strategic partners. But, it takes them 12 weeks to produce one huge textbook. They need a bigger staff.
You can count me in for being the first to forego carrying giant books to school. I wonder, though, how this might work in the public schools where the textbooks are provided by the school free of charge to the students. I can't see the public school system handing each child an iPad and allowing them to take it home with them, but when prices drop, the world may be open. I suppose someone once said that about the current textbooks, "we are going to let kids take these $300 books home?!?!"
I do, though, think it'd be great to buy my child an iPad instead of forcing them to carry these books. I swear my back still hurts some days from those days in school.
My favorite part of the guy's presentation though was his attention toward the iPad. He said something like, "We think Android and web development is very interesting, but as long as the iPad has 90% of the market, I think we are going to focus our efforts there."
A they say in NBA jam, BOOMshakalaka.
-B