Save Big Money With An iPad

My little brother, a sophomore engineering major at a Big 10 university, sent me a text yesterday and it read:

 “I need an iPad, I’ll save so much money on books.”

Now, as a recent graduate myself, the use of tablets and eBooks didn’t really pick up till my senior year and even then, we knew little of the money we could save. As this technology continues to permeate our educational system, we see more  curriculums being complemented by the multimedia advantages of a tablet, but how much could you actually save?

I asked my brother to send me the titles of his (four) books and then I went on Amazon.com and started crunching numbers. The table below shows the cost of each book on Amazon.com in hardcover, Ebook, and eBook rental editions.

Note: Rental price is based off a 112 (16 week) Semester and Book 3 did not have any digital options. Remember, this is just a single case as your savings my vary.

Book	Hardcover	eBook	(16 Week) eBook Rental
1	130	123	89.19
2	183	94	77.07
3	88	n/a	n/a
4	161	119	61.63
Total	562	424	315.89

If he could rent his books from Amazon for the semester he would save a: $246.11

Now, a 16 GB iPad 2 costs $399 (+tax) from Abt.com. So, assuming these savings will translate semester to semester (or increase if ALL his books are available in digital format) his iPad 2 will pay for itself in less than one academic year.  What you do with the extra savings is up to you, but since this is college, I’m pretty sure I know where every last cent is going…savings? Right.

I’m inspired, are you? Let us know how you (or how you WOULD)  save money using your electronics!