Steve Jobs could possibly take over the world and our textbooks. At this point, that isn’t all that far-fetched.

As the iPad gains popularity and the reviews get better and better, we can’t help but wonder if one day U. Central Florida will become a paper-less university.

Imagine a beautiful utopian campus where we could laugh at the thought of walking around with a bulky textbook made from primitive paper and ink.

We also wonder if that could be used against us.

What if textbook publishing companies turn around and laugh at us as the power to continue breaking our banks with over-priced textbooks remains in their hands?

Full Sail University has already taken that step to become paperless along with Seton Hill University, George Fox University and Abilene Christian University.

This advancement comes at a cost however.

Each of those schools is providing students with an iPad or a MacBook, with the price of each being added to tuition.

We know what you’re thinking: In the long run, it’s cheaper than buying pricey textbooks every semester.

But is it?

E-books still have to be purchased, and there’s no way to know how publishers will price them.

Apple and publishers have only formed partnerships with fiction and non-fiction titles, like those available for the Kindle.

E-textbooks must be bought through a third-party company called CourseSmart, which includes books from major textbook publishers Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin and Kaplan.

These publishers could then charge to their liking, despite spending less on production costs since there would be no need for paper, ink, shipping, etc.

And we would not hesitate to assume they would keep prices at extortion level.

Which brings us to our next point — re-sale value.

Aside from providing us with a wealth of useful information, the only other purpose textbooks serve is a meager (yet still satisfying) compensation at the end of the semester, when we sell our books back.

Publishers cannot stop us from doing so, and that’s the beauty of it all.

Also, making textbooks solely electronic would take away the option of buying used textbooks. A student would have to pay full price every time.

Of course, there would be loopholes. It wouldn’t take long before students could pirate e-textbooks bit-torrent style, which would offer a new wealth of problems.

It would be very easy for the iPad to sneak its way into mainstream use at UCF.

This would probably be really cool, but whether or not our pockets would be ready for that is a whole other story.