Amazon account managers must have been over the moon upon hearing Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement of his state’s first-in-the nation initiative to replace traditional school textbooks with free online digital textbooks. This is not some vision of the future, the initiative is scheduled to start in August of 2009. Science and Math textbooks will be replaced in the first stage with other subjects to follow.

An initial list of standards aligned digital textbooks covering subjects such as geometry, trigonometry, calculus, physics, algebra, chemistry, biology and earth science course will be released in August. A number of electronic books have already been submitted and are in the review procedure. Academic publishers and content providers have been asked to submit further materials for consideration by the California Learning Resources Network. The last date for submission is June 15 to allow for review in time for the forthcoming school year.

The second phase of the initiative, currently in development, will make the new digital textbooks available for all grades. Interactive content will be incorporated and a state wide web site highlighting books available will be the long term goal.

The scheme could potentially save Californian schools millions of dollars. It’s estimated that a school district with around 10,000 high school students could save $2 million dollars by using free downloadable textbooks in just science and math classes. In 2008, the State of California spent $350 million on textbooks and other printed academic material. Upon the adoption of digital textbooks a large portion of this money will become available for use in other areas.

A furher advantage envisaged is that, because digital textbooks are more easily updated, it will be easier for students to learn about technological advances and current discoveries as they happen. Traditional paper textbooks tend to be updated, on average, every 6 years – which could mean that, at the back end of the cycle, students could be missing six years of information.

It also seems probable that alternative, interactive learning techniques could be introduced once the project is well established.

Now, it’s probably worth noting that at no point in his announcement did Governor Schwarzenegger make any reference to Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader – or any of its competitors for that matter. In fact he said that it would be possible for schools to benefit even without computers or laptops as teachers could print out the material and that would still work out considerably cheaper than a conventional text book. So why is the internet buzzing about this “wonderful news” for Amazon?

Well, the latest addition to the Amazon Kindle ebook reader family, the Kindle DX, launched on June 10 – only days after Governor Schwarzenegger’s announcement. It is a larger version of Amazon’s recently released Kindle 2 having a 9.7” screen instead of a 6” one. Amazon have touted it as being perfect for reading newspapers, magazines and – that’s right – academic textbooks.

Amazon have already established agreements with at least three academic publishers and some higher education establishments have publicly announced that they make the Kindle available to their students. All things considered, Amazon are currently better placed to take advantage of a sudden introduction of new digital technology in the academic world than most of their competitors.

That’s not to say that they will have everything their own way of course. Sony have joined forces with Google to make Google’s huge collection of public domain ebooks available to owners of their PRS ebook reader, a clear sign that neither Google or Sony are willing to relinquish the potentially huge and lucrative ebook market to Amazon without a fight. Other competitors also exist and it will be interesting to see how they react to developments in the market in general and the academic sector in particular.

In the meantime, it does appear as if Governor Schwarzenegger’s innovative plan for California’s educational future is likely to boost sales of Amazon’s reader, Kindle accessories and books from Amazon’s Kindle store. No doubt other states will consider similar schemes and the academic sector of the book market could heat up very rapidly indeed. Of course, the academic textbook sector is just one market segment – but it does appear to be leading the way. It also offers Amazon and its competition an ideal chance to “get ‘em while they’re young” and establish brand recognition and loyalty which could influence purchasing decisions in later life.