Looking at Apple’s education announcement and the later statements by McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw that; 1.  school boards would have to pay the $14.99USD “pilot pricing” per year per student and. 2.a paper text book costs $75.00USD per book and is replaced once every five years or so, and that Mr. McGraw expected to make money on “volume”, I had to wonder how Apple was going to knife the publishers? There has to be a plan to take out the publishers, because it is in Apple’s corporate DNA to screw the old school content providers. They almost have to, because the scheme as presented has absolutely no cost savings to cash strapped American school boards, and the prospect of a huge investment into the Apple ecosystem.Here is how I think it is going to play out.  In the US, publicly funded schools are generally overseen by the various states and each county and or city has its own school board that is for the most part funded by local taxes. Apple is going to point out to the state oversight school boards (if the states don’t figure it out on their own) that they can create their OWN textbooks using their own state university resources (ie graduate students) Essentially, once the primary texts are done, its just  a mater of updating and revisions.  For example, the American State of Tennessee has 971,524 students enrolled in K-12. (Think of it as Grades 1-13) The cost of one Apple iTextbook at say $15.00 USD would be $14,572,680. Admittedly, the number includes the entire group of K-12, but, I could see using iPads in kindergarten even if they were not issued to students below 3rd or 4th grade. Assuming 6 courses per student per year and figure 6 textbooks (at least-don’t forget lab books in upper forms)per student, per year, doing the  iMath comes to at least $90USD a year. per student, not counting the cost of the iPads.  However, if the schools create their own content, even at market cost there is about a five year break even for the cost of an iPad. Over, $14 million  US dollars would pay for a lot of work study time to do the basic research and writing of the texts All that has really stopped many state school boards from doing their own textbooks was the economies of scale for for publication.Take out the printing costs and its a whole new match. One the textbook publishers are likely to lose.

Commentators have mentioned that nothing was said about university level textbooks. I suspect not only that was deliberate on Apple’s part, it is where textbook publishers will start feeling the heat. Uni professors love to inset their own spin on the texts they use, even to almost writing their own. In the US, college textbooks are hitting $200USD a book in many subjects. Whilst UK textbook costs are usually 20-50% lower in the US, everyone is looking to cut costs.  Not to mention the potential savings on classes where you get a lecturer who almost never uses the book, but often has other material to read.  In the college setting, an iPad based textbook ecosystem could pay for itself in the FIRST TERM.  The idea of updated content is particularly appealing for technical subjects. From  the university’s perspective, there would not be any real need to issue iPads, students would be expected to buy them.

Where is Apple in all this? Selling a lot of iPads. Where are the textbook publishers? Trying to steal the pudding of the record companies at the home for obsolete business models.

Post from: Mighty Gadget - Gadget and Technology Blog

Is this Apple’s plan for the textbook market?

Microsoft gave users and developers many things to think about at the BUILD conference in California this last week.  One that is getting a lot of traction is the idea that Microsoft will be developing a Metro style, touch friendly version of Microsoft Office that will run on tablets. Metro is the name of the user interface language used for Windows Phone 7, and after BUILD, seems to be the direction that Microsoft Windows UI is heading going forward. A lot of analyses are saying that if Microsoft can follow through on the promises made to developers at BUILD, then they will have an OS ecosystem at least on par with Apple.

In fact, Microsoft better be working on a tablet friendly version of Microsoft Office. Office is probably the second largest source of revenue after Windows itself and played a large part in establishing Microsoft’s global dominance.  Microsoft Office has become the default bundled business productivity suite for concerns from mom and pop stores to FedEx and JP Morgan.

However, as tablets become more popular, Microsoft is going to have to rely on a “Metro Office” if it expects to have a chance at blunting the hold Apple has on the tablet market. Apple has a self contained ecosystem of products and apps and right now is so far out in front it is rumored that Apple is delaying the introduction of the iPad 3, because in essence it’s lapping the competition.  Microsoft seems to be adopting a similar approach through its co opting of Nokia to [produce Windows Phone based handsets and the direction being taken with Windows 8 and Metro.

Microsoft has made a lot of exciting promises with Windows 8 and Metro.  Microsoft also has a bit of reputation for talking about new things that never see retail shelves.  However, the last time Microsoft had the kind of competition it is facing now from Apple and Google for operating system market share Bill Gates was writing code for the company and IBM was selling PCs.  In order to succeed, Microsoft needs its star business tools ready for the tablet generation.

Post from: Mighty Gadget - Gadget and Technology Blog

Rumors of Microsoft Office on Metro Tablets? It better be a fact

DNet UK, HP’s head of the Personal Systems Group in the United Kingdom, Paul Hunter confirmed that the Pre 3 would be released in the UK sometime in August. He was mum on an exact date, but as it looks right now, the Pre 3 is likely to be in British hands well before Americans will get to do more than read about it.

The HP web os sales site for the Pre 3 lists the phone as being available for pre-order unlocked for £399.99, a bit dear for a phone whose specs have slipped to barely mainstream since they were announced six months ago. HP is beating the bushes for developers to get their Pre 3 apps in for approval as soon as possible along with releasing an updated emulator.

HP released the Pre 2 to Europe before it was made available in the States. At that time it appeared the US GSM carriers were a bit skittish about taking on the phone since it was early in the assimilation of Palm by HP, and there were already rumors swirling about the Pre 3. Now, HP may want to build buzz for the phone in the UK that the HP marketers hope will pull the phone out of the backwash that the upcoming Droid Bionic and iPhone 5 will create in the US .

Time will tell.

Post from: Mighty Gadget - Gadget and Technology Blog

HP confirms Pre 3 for August UK release

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Unfortunately we have been neglecting the blog a lot this year, it is only myself that contributes to the blog at the moment and I have been extremely busy with my company Dolphin Promotions. I have been trying to find a new member of staff and until then I am doing 2 peoples job, we have also been looking for new offices which takes up a surprising amount of time and therefore have not had much chance to blog here or the SEO Blog for Dolphin.

Finally things seem to be getting close to being sorted, we are in the final stages of sorting the office and hopefully we have found someone who fits the bill for the job role.

I am hoping to be able to blog a little more and to get back into things I have decided to update the theme with a template our designers created. The old theme seemed to have a few problems in IE and lots of other little irritating issues so instead of fixing them I am starting a fresh. Unfortunately there is no branding yet but we will get around to it! Overall I think the theme is a good choice, its nice and bright and there are less sidebars allowing for more room for the blog text to spread out.

I am also considering implementing some adsense on to the site at the end of the day I started the blog to be able to generate a small profit from it. I promise I wont plaster adverts around everywhere!

I am also looking at getting one of my friends to help contribute to the site which should avoid the site getting neglected when I am  to busy to blog myself.

I am also currently reviewing the new LG KF600 / LG Venus which will be done this week or next and was kindly provided by LG Blog.

Post from: Mighty Gadget - Gadget and Technology Blog

New theme and the end of the blog neglect!