How to give away e-readers

At the aforementioned (in the last post) Cyberpress forum on e-readers, JV Rufino of the Philippine Daily Inquirer said that (paraphrasing) the price point at which e-readers become attractive is US$100.

Try “free”. At least to the millions in the public schools. Subsidized by content providers — i.e., e-book publishers or e-bookstores.

And we can come up with a system where neither the content providers nor the hardware (i.e., e-reader) vendors need to put out any cash. The e-book publishers can sell e-textbooks to the Department of Education (DepEd), and include e-readers, preloaded with the e-textbooks, in the quotation. The sale of the e-textbooks will cover the price of the e-readers.

Advantages:

• e-books weighing less than one kilogram (in some cases, much less) can replace several kilograms of paper books. e-readers are capable of storing approximately 1,500 e-books.
• environmentalists will be happy about the reduced strain on the forests.
• it’s easy to update e-books over-the-air, e.g., to correct errors or to adjust to new developments.
• students can use e-readers outside the school environment, e.g., by buying other titles not necessarily related to school.
• publishers will benefit from shorter production cycles and reduced costs.

In regard to the last point, publishers can then pass on the savings to DepEd.

DepEd — or, more precisely, the content providers — will incur the biggest expense in the first year of implementation, when it has to get the e-readers to students at all year levels. In subsequent years, DepEd need only procure e-readers for new entrants into the public school system, and perhaps replace the few defective units. Furthermore, publishers will push new content each year. In the context of education, this would mean that students get the e-textbooks appropriate for their year level.

In order to make this system attractive to the DepEd, we should at least give them options on how to distribute the e-textbooks. While e-readers may be 3G-capable, this is not necessarily the most efficient option to get the content to the individual students. Furthermore, 3G is not available in all areas. It may be easier on the cellular networks if DepEd transmits the content to regional offices, and thence to the schools in the region, and finally to the students, through WiFi. In this regard, DepEd will need to gear up for the distribution of content. The cellular carriers can do the needed initial setup, for free even, since they will get their revenue from the data traffic.

Another attraction to DepEd is that they don’t need to make radical changes to the bidding procedure. All that’s needed is a change from paper to electronic books. If necessary, an independent consulting group may help them identify which portions of the book procurement system need adjustment.

This early, we can identify at least two digital-ready content providers: Diwa Learning Systems, Inc., and Vibal Foundation; and at least one e-reader manufacturer: RedFox.