The iPad is the perfect epitome of the 21st century learning. When schools and faculties integrate these things into their workflow, anything is possible. The iPad, as you know, debuted as the first mainstream tablet and it immediately bolstered Apple's already strong and undisputed credibility in education.

Of course, the gizmo owes much of its success to a strong library of more than 300,000 apps designed specifically for it. That said, it shouldn't really surprise anyone that Apple's tablet is replacing textbooks fast and becoming an indispensable teaching tool for educators and an interactive learning aid for students.

Thursday, the company officially confirmed it has sold a cool 4.5 million iPads to U.S. education institutions alone and a total of eight million iPads to education institutions worldwide - a notable rise versus about 1.5 million iPads found in U.S. education institutions as of January 2012.

While Samsung shipped as much tablets to the entire market during the holiday quarter of 2012, the South Korean giant did not break down sales by region or industry verticals so we really can't tell how strong Galaxy tablets are in education, but our guess is they're virtually non-existent...