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The demand for apps is for the mass-market even though apps are more suited to niche markets because of the increasing cost of development and lack of adaptability across different phone brands.

I've always wondered what drives VC investments in ed tech firms. Today, Union Square Ventures, a New York-based VC firm, began sharing its internal market research. Scroll down and click on "online education" to see what's caught their attention in the sector. It's very interesting to consider what is included--and excluded!

State legislation passed in the spring could put up-to-the-minute instructional content at students' fingertips-either online or in customized printed form-eliminating the mass-market hardback textbook.

TX, CA, and FL markets drive the textbook industry. If TX leads the way, eliminating mass market textbooks, then they will undoubtedly revolutionize the publishing industry. Tablet textbooks may be the wave of the future, but let's just hope publishers don't think revolutionizing the textbook industry means reading textbooks on a screen.

Hm...so Samsung invested in smart whiteboard and tablet technology in a Memphis school as part of their "market research" into the US education market. I'm not sure if this is a good thing? Hopefully the teachers at this school got some sort of professional development on how to use this technology with good pedagogy, and aren't just going to use the technology in the traditional ways...

This article looks at one case study in El Salvador where MOOCs have cracked open the door for university reform. Universities in emerging markets operate on really low budgets compared to U.S. universities, and MOOCs give them access to current content, especially important for high-tech subjects.

Gates funds edX to bring their courses/content to the community college setting. Is K-12 next?

Interesting point Harvey - thanks for weighing in! Per Clay Christensen, disruptive innovators often target the least desirable/most under-served segment of the market upon entry - the business that the established folks don't bother to pursue (think Southwest Airlines, etc). They then evolve up the value chain, ultimately displacing the large, established guys.

Chip, that's what makes this especially curious: it's the major players (Harvard, MIT, etc.) who are pursuing the least-served part of the market here - Christensen would argue that they are more like to pursue sustaining, not disruptive innovation! In essence, EdX is seeking to disrupt the teaching of entry-level, profit-generating classes at other schools, while possibly undermining their own teaching of the same topics. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.

Edutone selects Intel's Classmate PC for K-12 education market.

Background on Augmented Reality. Reading for 9/14.

A 360-degree display, engineered by Sony, with potential applications in marketing and the medical industry

The following is a rounded, 360 degree display that can be viewed at any angle. Sony sees potential use of this technology in the medical imaging industry, as well as marketing/signage.

Augmented Reality continues to seep into reality: "Layar, the first camera-based AR app to really blow us (or anyone) away, has quietly slipped into the App Store. As with the Android version, the app overlays all kinds of information onto a live view of the world around you."

Layar, the first phone-based AR web browser on the market, has come to the iPhone 3GS.

Layar, the first phone-based AR web browser on the market, has come to the iPhone 3GS ... expect me to be wandering the Harvard campus seeing what this app can do ...

Microsoft Courier Booklet

The Microsoft Courier is a two screen folding tablet device that allows for user interaction via gestures and/or stylus. The user interface looks to be the Courier's strongest point, but I'm curious to see if the stylus-heavy interaction will provide for any major advantage over a typical laptop and the already existent tablet pc market for anything other than art programs. In an educational setting, this could potentially be used as a library reference device and/or collaborative art device, but just as has been the case with many educational products in the past, may not be novel enough to sway education (or any other market) into preventing the Courier into becoming vaporware. However, this still poses as an excellent example of new devices coming onto the market that focus on new or perfected methods of Human Computer Interaction (HCI).

This is an "K-12 education technology market map with the entrepreneurial, philanthropic, and education communities". Worth to take a look.

oh wow thanks for sharing....nice visual of what areas are more saturated....and where needs are.

This is an awesome resource. This would be great for curriculum specialists and technology coordinators in schools to draw from, and even teachers to be introduced to in PD...

Industry top firms, including Google, News Corp, Disney, and NBC Universal, are showing interest in online education. "Demand for online education is exploding. The global market for online learning at schools and businesses is expected to grow from $32.1 billion in 2010 to approximately $50 billion by 2015, according to research firm Ambient Insight."

Schools throughout the country are experiencing the same teacher-driven adoption of technology tools. Internet-savvy teachers are increasingly finding tools to use in the classroom on their own, and lower business-startup costs mean the tools are more readily available. In response, many education companies are changing how they market and sell their products. Nationwide sales teams and central-office visits are giving way to word-of-mouth and sophisticated business-intelligence software as preferred methods for pushing adoption. Companies offer free products to teachers with the goal of influencing districtwide purchases of more-robust versions-known as the "freemium" pricing model. But in most sectors of the existing K-12 system-with its various stakeholders, budgetary restrictions, and procurement regulations- the so-called "consumerization" of education faces many barriers, experts say, making it difficult to find the right balance between selling directly to teachers and addressing the needs of central-office administrators.

An interesting article on how resistant to change different types of organizations are. Educational institutions rank pretty highly resistant. Though it is interesting to note that businesses rank the most adaptive (non resistant)--so the education technology and startup trend may be a good sign!

Interesting. from where I am from (=Japan), business organizations with long history with the majority of employees committed until retirement age of 60 (slowly this is changing though), maybe NPO and even government (with so much shuffling going on) would rank higher...

The author makes a good point that heightened market competition seems to contribute to reduced resistance. I noticed that the more-resistant organizations operate in more highly regulated markets, which would seem to create internal cultures more oriented to compliance and, thus, resistance.

expectation on the power of 'technology and education' to solve the current skills shortage in the job market. 

Not necessarily education related but extensive research/data on current trend in pc/mobile. (was created probably for those involved in media and marketing)

disruptive Innovation should target highly supportive families

A potpourri of articles about online education compiled by Union Square Ventures as part of their analysis of the education market.

Documentation of results of an analysis of Apple's Education section of the App Store, with a focus on understanding market dynamics, opportunities that are emerging in the educational apps market, and areas of innovation.