The e-book wars have begun and battle lines are being drawn. Apple will corner the interactive book market with its iPad while its Amazon and Sony e-reader counterparts chase after non-tech savvy bookworms. Google just jumped into the game with its new e-book store, Editions. But how can they compete against Apple, Amazon and Sony?
Think education. Already, higher education institutions around the world are turning to Google, with 59 percent of 4-year universities and colleges using Google to host email. Google Editions could be an extension of its existing services for schools. Google’s history in the education sector, ease-of-use, collaborative approach and distribution model are factors that could lead Editions to bring colleges, universities and other institutions into the 21st Century.
History in Education – After years of legal wrangling, Google Books is now out of its bureaucratic nightmare and poised to take off in the education sector. Google Books and its education-focused app, Google Scholar, include around 12 million fiction and non-fiction titles to serve as a base for its e-book Editions platform. Building from there, Google can partner with education publishers, such as McGraw-Hill, to sell books at a reduced cost (think: no ink and paper).
Ease-of-Use – “It took me about four hours [to replace our old system with Google Docs],” says Cory Pavicich, an Educational Support Specialist for the Watershed School, in Boulder, CO. Since the launch of its search engine, Google has prided itself on ease-of-use, both for administrators and end users. Its apps are functional and ignore a lot of non-essential extras. For instance, Google Docs doesn’t offer the bells and whistles of Microsoft Word, but enables users to create basic documents with slight formatting adjustments. Bringing this functionality and ease-of-use to Google Editions could increase its attractiveness to administrators and end users in educational institutions.
Enhanced Collaboration – Users can share and collaborate on documents in near real time with Google Docs. Comments, or notes, in Editions would be helpful for teachers wanting to emphasize particular passages in texts. Or, student discussions could form around problem areas to inform the teacher that they might need to re-focus. Google Editions could enable text to be customized to each classroom or student for an enhanced learning experience.
Distribution Model – In nearly all of its software innovations, Google looks to the cloud for answers. Think Google Books, Gmail, Docs, Scholar, Calendar and a slew of other cloud-computing apps. As such, Google’s products are accessible on nearly every internet-enabled device — perfect for students transitioning from classroom desktop to dorm room laptop to smartphone device. “The idea of a library that can be accessed from any web browser, ensuring that you aren’t tied to a given device, operating system, or even a particular vendor brings what Google calls an ‘open ecosystem’ to the e-book market,” writes ZDNet.
For educational institutions, the transition to Google Editions could be a smooth one. With 59 percent of 4-year colleges and universities already on board with Google, leveraging Google Checkout to purchase books could be a reality in the next year or two. Moreover, the small fortune students spend on textbooks each semester could be significantly reduced and potentially converted into subscriptions that could be included in tuition costs. Today, we have limited information about the direction Google will take its e-book store, but given its abilities and track record of success, it certainly has potential to make a big impact in the eduction category.
Feature image by sanja gjenero from Stock.Xchng
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Love the concept but don’t get ahead of yourself. University bookstore sales (and subsequent repurchase and resale) are a huge cash cow and not likely to be given up lightly.