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Ebook readers are great for anything one wants to read in a linear fashion: A novel or a magazine article, for instance. They're terrible for anything you need to jump around in, like a technical reference book -- or a textbook. On my computer, I sometimes have several instances of a technical book on-screen, the equivalent of having my fingers stuck into several parts of the book that I'm flipping between, and better yet, I can line them up side by side. You just can't do that on an ebook reader. I don't think this is going to work out as well as they planned.
Not to mention, of course, the whole DRM issue. If a school buys a textbook in physical form, they can keep using it until the covers fall off. If they buy a textbook in ebook form (probably for the same, if not a higher, price) they can use it for one student, and then they have to buy it again next year. Sure, the publishers love this, but it's going to be a massive waste of money at a time when school budgets have already been bled dry.
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