> That 30% has to be paid without getting anything in return Really? Considering Apple will introduce something groundbreaking for textbook publishing (I'm a little skeptical about that myself, but just let's assume that), is that really 'nothing'? Without them, you'd be stuck with dump, hard-to-read, un-zoomable PDFs. With their (imaginary) tools, you'll get some incredible, beautiful, multimedia textbooks (imagine CLRS's algorithm book, that is full of interactive demos showing various sort algorithms, ect. without you having to crawl the internet for a 12 year old JAVA applet that sucks). I think it's a good deal. (BTW, I think 30% is way too much. I think Apple should charge around 15% for everything they sell.)

Also, note that the prices will certainly be less that paper textbooks in a few years.