iPad – Hurricane For College Bookstores
Change is the only constant in this world, and that is about to happen in many college bookstores nationwide, courtesy of the Apple iPad. If students adopt schoolbooks on the iPad, college bookstores might lose big time! It is a time of year for graduation parties and commencement speeches, but colleges and universities are already gearing for next year, even in the bookstalls. During the coming opening weekend, students will once more file into university bookstores to buy course materials, school supplies, and a college sweatshirt or two. While the university licensed paraphernalia may seem like a throw-in, it’s full-grown business for colleges and their coffers. But as the higher education industry plans for a future involving digital content delivery to devices like e readers and the Apple iPad, these college-branded impulse buys, and possibly even college bookstores, may speedily become a thing of the past.
This trend is seen in the independent online booksellers that continue to erode campus booksellers’ market share. Last year, 51% of students bought their course materials at brick-and-mortar college bookstores, and 18% purchased books online through school-approved websites. The remaining 31% either bought no materials or purchased them off-campus. That is certainly a big number to reckon. e Books, in the meantime, are slowly gaining traction with students and introducing problems for the stores. Electronic titles presently account for just 2%-3% of college bookstore sales, but by 2012 they are envisioned to reach 10%-15%. Big publishers like McGraw-Hill are keen to make content available on every potential platform. McGraw-Hill brings out physical textbooks and e-books, has its own online learning portals, has modernised apps for mobile devices like the iPhone, and is partnering with ScrollMotion to deliver content to the iPad before 2010 ends. They are letting the students drive the distribution channel in this strategy, Universities would desire to be in the heart of this effort, but students in the end, will decide. McGraw-Hill’s wide-ranging content options all come bundled with the physical book today. It is predicted that in the future these products will be sold individually. 
Of course, at this point, it is unclear how content will even get into students’ mobile devices in the future. But should the iPad follow a normal adoption flight, about 60%-75% of university students will have an Apple iPad or a similar device in four years. What is the implication for the bookstores? Bookstores are preparing for a future with digital products. In July 2008 the association launched NACS Media Solutions, a device-agnostic service that works as a conduit between publishers and stores, helping to distribute content to a variety of stores and websites, on a range of devices. But should students demand content on the iPad, bookstores will be bolted out. Apple’s current App Store and iBookstore sales models give publishers the lion’s share of a 70-30 revenue split, and already cut out the schools altogether. In the meantime, in bookstores distribution model today, colleges pocket, on average, 33% of the price of a new book. What will be the most attractive sales channel to publishers will be the one that’s the most successful at getting succeeding semesters of students to use the products. It is unavoidable that college stores’ book sales revenue will decline. Stores are trying to adapt, and we like to think that they have been successful, but it is an unquestionable fact that the nature of the college bookstore will shift, huge shift indeed. As a part of that change, bookstores will be forced to diversify their businesses. Some are now stocking textbooks and collegiate gear, running a green grocer, a convenient store, and some even sells computers and the Apple iPad, every model of the iPad.
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