Google has joined the e-textbook movement, rolling out a textbook section for Google Play. It joins the ranks of Barnes & Noble and Amazon, which have long offered e-textbooks for sale, and rent. Available to Android and iOS users, the e-textbooks available on Google Play are mostly available for purchase with a select few able to be rented, according to Gigaom.
The nature of textbooks made them an early target for digital publishers. The ever-changing nature of academic materials means frequent revisions and updates to often very large, and expensive texts. Despite the convenience of e-textbooks, convincing students to adopt them has not always been easy,as EContent reported earlier this year. According to Springer research, students continue to lag behind their professors in adoption of ebooks on campus, regardless of device proliferation.
