02-03-2013, 10:03 AM
Apple jumps into digital textbooks fray
Apple jumps.pdf (Size: 79.92 KB / Downloads: 23)
The giant consumer electronics company has been working on digital textbooks with publishers Pearson PLC,
McGraw-Hill Cos Inc and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a trio responsible for 90 percent of textbooks sold in
the United States.
The move pits the maker of the iPod and iPhone against Amazon.com Inc and other content and device
makers that have made inroads into the estimated $8 billion market with their electronic textbook offerings.
It could also see Apple shake up the traditional textbook market significantly, changing the emphasis from
content to hardware; but publishers said working would be a great opportunity to revive and expand the
market.
"I give such incredible marks to Steve Jobs and Apple for having this vision and pushing it through the iPad,"
said Terry McGraw, chief executive of McGraw-Hill. He said he had been talking to Apple's founder Jobs and
his team since last June about recreating textbooks as applications. Jobs died in October.
He said having textbooks on iPads will open up the market beyond high school and university students to
everyday consumers. "I think without a doubt this will open up a learning agency for anybody and
anywhere."
The early plan is to enable students to buy their books directly through Apple rather than through their school
districts. The books in the pilot launch are priced at $14.99 each on the iPad, with a range of interactive
features.
McGraw confirmed that Apple would take a cut of each sale, believed to be its standard amount of some 30
percent. He said he was "very relaxed" about having to share his profits with Apple, as printing and
distributing textbooks accounts for about 25 percent of their cover prices.
Apple also unveiled iBooks Author, a new free application available on the Mac App Store which enables
anyone to create a book. It also re-introduced its iTunes U service as a standalone app, with up to 100
complete university online courses from colleges including Yale and Duke.
At an event at New York's Guggenheim Museum, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller and Apple Internet
chief Eddy Cue introduced tools to craft digital textbooks and demonstrated how authors and even teachers
can create books for students.
The "value of the app is directly proportional to students having iPads," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst
with industry research firm Gartner.
Apple's Schiller said it is time to reinvent the textbook, adding that 1.5 million iPads are in use now in
education.
"It's hard not to see that the textbook is not always the ideal learning tool," he said. "It's a bit cumbersome."
IBooks 2 will be available as a free app on the iPad, starting Thursday. High school textbooks will be priced
at $14.99 or less, Schiller said.
"You'll see textbooks for every subject for every level," he added.
At the event, the first since the passing of Jobs, Schiller said teachers need help and Apple is trying to figure
out how it can do its part.
"In general, education is in the dark ages," he said, adding that education has challenges that are "pretty
profound."
Cue told Reuters that young students would be quick to adopt the iBooks 2 technology, which is based on its
iPad. But he declined to comment on whether Apple would introduce a cheaper iPads to make the iBooks
software available to poorer students.
"Our iPads are very affordable; they start at $499. It's an amazing product with all the capabilities that it
brings; that's what we've got and we feel very good about that," said Cue.
Other media and technology companies have eyed the U.S. education market as ripe for some sort of
upheaval. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp launched an education business two years ago and hired former New
York City Education Chancellor Joel Klein to lead it.
According to Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson, Murdoch met with Jobs last year and discussed the
possibility of Apple's entrance into a market Jobs estimated at $8 billion a year and believed was ripe for
disruption.