[impendia]

I don't really buy this. There are plenty of salesmen, but faculty don't generally believe their pitches.

The reason that universities "upgrade" to new versions is that publishers refuse to continue printing the old ones.

Indeed, my university (the University of South Carolina) had this stunt pulled on us by Cengage (the publisher of Stewart's Calculus), and we are refusing to play ball. So we've decided that we are absolutely going to use something other than Stewart next year. Unfortunately, the best alternatives also all cost around $200+.

[alex_g]

My school also recently switched over from Stewart's calculus. Maybe this was why. Sucks for me though b/c my $80 textbook is now worth nothing.