San Francisco based Inkling (founded by former Apple employee Matt MacInnis) is making a name for itself as the premier platform for publishing e-book versions of textbooks for the iPad. Inkling's e-texts go much further than simply generating a digital copy of the printed text, they include interactive elements such as video content, 3-D models, hyperlinked text, quizes and a feature that allows students and teachers to share notes. Inkling recently landed funding to the tune of $17 million and has deals inked with major textbook publishers including McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons and Pearson.
Inkling's iPad textbooks are sold through the company's own e-bookstore, which is beginning to accumulate a collection of popular titles. Despite the additional features in these digital textbooks, Inkling prices its titles at up to 40% off the publisher's MSRP for the printed paper editions and the company also offers a potentially money saving through its unique 'buy by the chapter' capability.
I checked in on this claim and found that the 9th Edition of Biology (by Raven et al) lists for $187.81. Ouch — college is expensive! Amazon sells the textbook at a discounted $160.68 (no Kindle text version is available). Inkling sells its version for $149.99. Anyone who is dabbling in biology and just wants to pick up a few chapters has no choice but pay full price with paper, but individual chapters are available for the iPad through Inkling for $3.99 each.
For students with iPads, being able to buy the Inkling version of a text probably makes sense. However, as Inkling and other companies like Kno enter begin to push the capabilities of tablets and e-readers, the biggest danger facing the industry is probably fragmentation. Tying e-books to a specific platform to take advantage of its capabilities has some inherent risks. For example, a student could conceivably end up requiring two texts — each available only on a competing platform — requiring the purchase of an additional e-reader or tablet, or going old school with one of the titles and settling for paper. Details like this will doubtless work themselves out over the next few years, but for now, Inkling and its iPad only interactive e-textbooks seem to be on an upward trajectory.