America's Digital Schools: A Five Year Forecast - Mobilizing the Curriculum (ADS 2006) shows that student appliances, Tablet PCs, Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs), and interactive whiteboards will be some of the fastest-growing product categories among mainstream education products over the next five years. The Greaves Group issued the report.

The promise of ubiquitous technology is full personalization of the educational experience, ... enabling them to work at their individual paces -- including accelerated paces -- by providing the required (electronic) tools, knowledge, and resources in the language, complexity, and capacity that are most beneficial. (Bold added.)(Greaves, T. (November 22, 2006). The Ubiquitous Technology Dream, Edutopia.

The report indicates:

That of IT directors who track results, 88% report moderate to significant academic improvement from 1:1 computing.

That 7% of students are taking online AP math classes.

That 31% of superintendents indicate they are implementing a 1:1 program in at least one grade, compared with 4% previously.

That 19% of all student devices were mobile and that 50% will be mobile in 2011. They cite the Ultra-Mobile PC as one of several products leading the drive to lower-cost devices for schools. (This represents the installed base. Yearly purchases will tilt toward mobile devices.)

That student appliances will grow 104%, Tablet PCs 78% (compared with 24% for other PC notebooks and 25% for Mac notebooks), handheld devices 37%, and interactive whiteboards 24%.

That more than 24% of school districts are in the process of transitioning to 1:1 computing (where each student and teacher has one Internet-connected wireless computing device for use both in the classroom and at home).

That online learning in the eight main subject areas was 3.8% of students, but is expected to grow to 15.6% by 2011. This means over 8 million students will take online courses in 2011, requiring schools to adjust their infrastructure to handle the increased demand while improving specialized instruction.

That the average cost for successful 1:1 implementation is $94.75 per student per year.

That the average cost for IT support of 1:1 computing is $1 per student.

In five years, the current-year sales of student appliances for education will surpass those of laptops in schools. This total equates to about $1 billion in sales.

Tablet PC Education Blog