Backpacks are stuffed with new supplies; crossing guards have assumed their posts; and the dorm room aisle at Target is depleted. That’s right – school is back in session.
Students across the country are heading back to the classroom, but many of these students will be ditching textbooks and picking up e-readers.
According to new research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, e-reader ownership has recently been growing faster than tablets. In fact, the number of adults in the U.S. who own an e-reader doubled from November 2010 to May 2011. Currently, 12 percent (or approximately 30 million) of Americans own an e-reader.
With e-reader usage climbing, it’s not surprising that e-reader manufacturers and publishers are marketing to students. The typical college student spends $900 per year on textbooks. However, last month Amazon announced that Kindle users now have the option to rent e-textbooks anywhere from 30 to 360 days. Students can make notes and highlights on the Kindle like in a traditional textbook, which will then be saved, even after the e-text rental expires. Amazon claims the e-text rental service will save students up to 80 percent off the list price of traditional text books. Another bookseller giant, Barnes & Noble, is offering students $100 worth of study guides and tools with the purchase of its e-reader, the NOOK.
Some colleges actually encourage students to use e-readers because it reduces paper consumption – saving money and conserving natural resources. Princeton University recently completed a pilot program – providing three faculty members and 51 students with a Kindle DX. By using digitized documents versus printed texts, pilot participants printed just over half the amount of paper than control groups who did not use e-readers.
With so many classroom benefits and applications, analysts expect that digital textbooks will comprise 20 percent of the textbook market by 2015. Powering the demand for these consumer electronic devices are lithium-ion batteries – ensuring e-readers have enough juice to survive the midnight cram session.
Palladium Energy is the most experienced battery pack designer and manufacturer for handheld consumer electronic devices – including those used by scholarly co-eds. Our technology experts and design engineers pay careful attention to creative lithium-based cell and mechanical design solutions and in-depth integration of battery power source with device circuitry. We know that today’s batteries must make-the-grade in order to survive a semester of freshman intro courses.
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Rebecca Kritzman, director of marketing
