After a couple of hiccups, yesterday Sony finally unveiled its new e-book reader device to the media. The initial reviews that have come out so far have been extremely positive. You might wonder why we're even covering this topic. Well, there is somewhat of a paradigm shift taking place in the secondary school and collegiate textbook market. One of the biggest complaints received from college administrators (only because they hear it non stop from students and their parents) is the cost of textbooks, which we estimate is a $2.5 billion business just among college students. More colleges and high schools are looking for alternatives and the given the state of digital technology and Gen Y's extreme comfort factor, alternatives like e-books seem to make some sense. With the release of their new e-book reader yesterday, Sony has set itself up to quickly become a market leader in a category that should grow by at least 20% this year and next year. The big challenge will not come from the school administrators or students in our opinion, it will come from the book publishers themselves, who by some accounts, have been slow to embrace e-book technology as an additional distribution platform for their textbook offerings.
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