Schools Are Primed for the iPad

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The Business Insider's research arm—TBI Research—issued a report this week by Rory Maher that outlines Apple's strength in the education market and how it will help channel the flow of iPads into the mainstream of educational-media production and consumption.

Set aside all the years Apple (AAPL) has invested in the education market with discounts, dealer networks, and building a base of customer loyalty. Academic life is really one of media production. Professors create lectures in presentation format, they assemble syllabi from mixed-media sources, and they generate a slew of exams and research projects that all bear the fundamental kinship of being media.

Apple, of course, prides itself on making media that is well-designed and professional looking. That attention to detail seems to have paid off when TBI went asking around about how Amazon (AMZN) and Sony's e-readers are faring on campus:

Universities we contacted said that a lack of multi-media capability remains the biggest hurdle to mass adoption of e-readers at universities since use of multi-media functions and the internet have become an increasingly important part of academic studies both inside and outside the classroom. 

It appears that Apple has addressed this need by including superior internet functionality, access to most of the same apps that are available on the iphone, and better graphics and design tools.  As a result, universities we spoke with are eagerly awaiting the iPad's arrival and plan to quickly distribute iPads to students for testing.