6 September 2010 - Business schools.  Ahead of the curve when it comes to management theory and innovation.  Impressive when it comes to the implementation of cutting-edge technology such as e-book readers. 

Well, maybe not. 

Based on Kindle pilot program undertaken by seven US colleges (including two business schools, the University of Washington Foster School of Business and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business) , the tech did not pass muster.  The theory:  students would be able to load class materials and textbooks easily on to the 10-ounce device, and of era of lugging textbooks around campus would be over. 

The test: 

-   the schools convert many of the case studies they use in first-year classes to the Kindle format

-   they selected 62 students and 10 faculty members for the pilot. 

The result:  while students liked some of the Kindle’s features, such as the big screen and the ability to store hundreds of case studies and books on the device, most were unhappy overall with the user experience.  Although the device allowed students to highlight text and make notes, many complained that it was difficult to use these features and said the Kindle was more suitable for casual reading than for the classroom.  You can’t move between pages, documents, charts and graphs simply or easily enough compared to the paper alternatives. 

By the second semester, most students had abandoned their Kindles, choosing instead to read case studies on their laptop or on paper.  In a mid-term survey, the pilot scheme participants were asked: “Would you recommend the Kindle DX to an incoming MBA student?”    A total of 75-80 per cent answered “no”. 

The professors view?  You must be highly engaged in the classroom every day and the Kindle is not flexible enough, even clunky. 

But … many schools have switched their attention to Apple’s iPad and Grenoble’s Ecole de Management in France plans to select 40 students to be part of an “innovation” laboratory at the heart of the school, aimed at testing, among other innovations, the pedagogical advantages of the iPad.   Grenoble plans to use the iPad to develop applications, make more intuitive use of its e-book reader capabilities, give access to online classes and distance learning and to provide access to faculty publications via the e-book store. 

But digital reading continues to gain in popularity, and there is a growing body of evidence of e-books’ fast-growing level of importance to the publishing industry.  Biggest reasons?  Falling e-reader prices, a growing digital inventory and changing consumer habits.  Result?  strong e-book sales.

As reported by numerous sources in the publishing media, device makers such as Amazon, Sony and Barnes & Noble are selling e-readers by the truckload, with as many as 10m expected to be in use in the US this year according to Forrester Research.

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The Association of American Publishers said e-book sales grew 119 per cent year-on-year in June with sales of $30m, and that year-to-date e-book sales are up 204 per cent on the first seven months of 2009. Though e-books only make up about 2.7 per cent of the overall US book market, the segment is a bright spot.  Random House said e-book sales surged 300 per cent in the first six months of the year, with comparable gains in Germany and the UK. 

In addition, Hachette Livre, the French publisher, has sold more e-books in the first half of this year than it did in all of 2009. Pearson says e-book sales at Penguin during July grew threefold on the same month last year. 

According to all digital media analysts the driving factor is the broader awareness about tablets and e-readers among the general public, thanks to Apple’s introducuction of the the iPad.  Credit the power of the Apple marketing and publicity machine. 

And as Steve Haber, Sony’s head of digital reading, pointed out in a series of interview in the Financial Times and Publishers Weekly the rapid adoption of e-readers and e-books is giving companies new insights into contemporary reading habits, and upending some assumptions.  “When this industry came about it was built on the premise of travelling. But that’s not the case,” said Haber.  “The majority of people are reading at home.”  And according to a study by Forrester, people are comfortable having multiple devices in their lives.

We’ll have some in-depth posts later this month on the digital media/publishing market after the fall conferences in London.