Will the iPad change the textbook game?

As a long time student, a "semi" fan of the Mac Platform, and an Instructional Designer, I am truly wondering whether the iPad has what it takes to "shake up" the textbook game.  Many folks are clamoring for the "death of the textbook".  I find myself straddled on the border between the world of the traditional book purist, and the student who is completely comfortable reading in a digital world with no keen desire to hold a textbook in hand while studying material.  I must admit that I do like having a physical textbook, which allows me the sensory feeling of highlighting a book, and the distinct pleasure of sticking my finger in the spine of the text while I flip back and forth between a few pages.  However, I can live without that feeling and read quite comfortably on screen.  There are times when I prefer to read on screen, particularly when immersed in a graduate research project;  if I am reading online I can pull up additional sources of clarification at my fingertips.  For example, it is helpful to Google historical information about Kirkpatrick in one Firefox tab, while reading about the Levels of Evaluation in another tab. 

The device has a few points in its favor that may render it a textbook "game changer":

1.  An installed user base that is already gravitating to Apple (college students).
2.  A nice sensory feel which stores all books on a virtual bookshelf, and allows you to turn pages in a similar fashion to a traditional book.
3.  Agreements with Simon and Schuster, Penguin, Harper Collins, and MacMillian (names that all in academia land will recognize as popular textbook publishers).

There are also a  few caveats that make me skeptical about the device's ability to change the textbook industry:

1.  iBook does not come installed by default on the iPad.  This means that users have to install the iBooks software, and we all know how each additional layer of difficulty sours the end user on using an application.
2.  iBook is currently only available in the United states (see ipad features on the apple Website http://www.apple.com/ipad/features). What about the myriad of students in other countries who would like to use the iBook?  This will inhibit the e-text adoption rate.
3.  Annotating and highlighting features are not supported by the iBook's e-pub format (http://newsfromthemill.com/2010/01/28/ibooks-on-the-ipad-the-kindle-killer-or-not/)

Caveat #3 makes me nearly certain that the iBooks and the iPad will not revolutionize the textbook industry.  The bottom line, as a graduate student, I need to be able to highlight a textbook, write in the margins, draw a diagram on a sheet of notebook paper and tape it in my textbook.  Any electronic device that will not allow me to do this is not going to offer a good study experience for a serious student.

The iPad may have what it takes to revolutionize how books are served to those reading for pleasure, I love the virtual bookshelf, and the tactile book reading experience.  I also like the idea of being able to free my bookshelf of some unnecessary clutter, and the potential elimination of packing, and boxes of books during a household move.  When I read for pleasure, I do not need to annotate, highlight, or deeply digest information, I am being captivated by sheer joy as I read Amy Tan or Alice Walker.  But when I'm reading  a graduate level ID book, I'm seeking to highlight, annotate, obtain a framework of facts, make them malleable and assimilate them into my memory.  Thus my needs for textbook reading versus pleasure reading are very different.

iBooks may change the way folks read a novel, but it will not change the way folks need to interact with a textbook, as humans have been employing similar strategies to grasp new material for centuries.  The device that will be a game changer for e-textbook delivery will be a device that offers the convenience of the digital world, with the ability to learn and study in the fashion that has facilitated learning for centuries, the good old fashioned highlighting, and taking notes in the margin.