Seton Hill University is promising a brand new iPad and iBook to all students starting school in the Fall. This move has received a lot of press, but mostly it serves as a market indicator of the huge potential of e-textbooks for the iPad.

According to a survey by the Association of Learned Professional and Scholarly Publishers of 400 textbook publishers, most are seeing growth in their electronic publishing divisions. The survey also shows that electronic sales now account for 8% of total sales. Because the survey was taken before the announcement of Apple’s iPad, some of the anticipated expansion numbers may already have changed, such as the 17% of publishers who have no plans to expand into electronic textbooks.