Pearson supports whatever drives to all-digital delivery, btw. The reason is that annual licensing for use (limited time DRM) is far more profitable than textbook sales. Besides, if you control the DRM, there's no way for the school to not buy from you next year if they decide that they'd rather just re-use the same text.
Oh, and they can "bundle" a lot of other slick but pedagogically untested/unsound fluff in there, too, and charge extra for the "innovation."
The rep. that spoke to our district was pretty high up the company chain. If I recall correctly, he had a couple Ph.D's and has taught college level math and more. He told us that Pearson would not produce any actual textbooks after 2016, so they are definitely going all out digital.
