Textbook Company Embraces Free For Infinite Goods, Charges For Scarcities
15th January 2009
Our business model eliminates the catch. We’re giving away great textbooks and making them open because it solves real problems for students and instructors. In so doing, we are creating a large market for our product. We then turn around and sell things of value to that large market – more convenient ways to consume our free book (print, audio, PDF) and efficient ways to study (study aids). Sure, we’ll make less money per student than the big guys. But that’s okay. We’ll be selling to a lot more of them, and we’ll be doing it for a lot less money (thanks to technology like web-hosted services, XML, print-on-demand, and more). Like we said… just a smarter way to do business. For all of us.
In theory, this is a very smart strategy, based on the most modern thinking.
In practice … well, we’ll see.