OTHER TABBY? The very clever Kirsten Winkler makes a case for why Pearson should consider entering the tablet race. "The content creator is always in the strongest position," she argues, and Pearson would do well to follow Amazon's lead with its Kindle Fire and provide low-cost tablets offering a full catalog of Pearson's goodies. But although we admire many of Kirsten's commentaries, EdSurge's Betsy has to differ, both for Pearson--and the rest of our's--sake. Yes, digital content is going to drive Pearson's business. But hardware businesses are devilishly hard--and expensive--to run. What's more, education got itself into a nasty rut when it became dominated by a tiny number of huge businesses. Existing tablet makers will push down prices. Let's encourage a million content providers to deliver their value--via a number of other makers' devices.
