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Apple dives deeper into textbooks with iBooks 2 initiative

Apple unveiled a new initiative to significantly expand its presence in the textbook market, using its quickly growing iPad as the central focus.

An Apple executive said that the textbook market is in need of a significant overhaul during an event in New York City to introduce the iBooks 2 initiative. With more than 1.5 million iPads already being used for educational purposes, the company believes it is well positioned to facilitate that overhaul.

"There's a clear opportunity to apply technological innovation to the textbook market," said Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer Inc., New York.

"The inherent capabilities of tablets such as the iPad, combined with their ease of use and portability, make them a perfect medium for textbooks," he said.

"More than any of its competitors, Apple is poised to deliver the necessary combination of hardware, software, and content to bring about a sea change in textbook publishing. In the same way Apple has defined categories such as personal computers, media players, cell phones and tablets, the company sees itself taking a leadership role in defining education publishing in the digital age."

Tomorrow's workforce
Apple introduced a new bookstore for its iPad tablets for the textbook market as part of the initiative.

The company also unveiled free software called iBooks Author that allow users to create interactive e-books. Users will be able to drag Word files, images and other content directly into the program and publish the books straight to the iBookstore.

The moves could help Apple tap into the multi-billion dollar education industry.

"Compared with the total number of iPads Apple has sold so far, 1.5 million isn't a staggering number, but it's a solid base from which to build a larger presence," Mr. Verna said. "Clearly, the combination of the iBooks app, the authoring tool and the content storefront -- not to mention the iPad itself -- will help Apple substantially grow its footprint in the education market.

"For Apple, capturing mindshare among grade-school and college-age students is critical to maintaining market share and mind share in the future," he said. "Today's students are tomorrow's work force, tomorrow's parents, tomorrow's entrepreneurs, tomorrow's innovators.

"Apple realizes that having a strong presence among young people is one of the best ways to secure the long-term health of the company."

Apple said it plans to work in partnership with K-12 publishers on the initiative.

The moves are intended to help educators remedy issues such as heavy and out-of-date print books.

However, one of the challenges Apple is likely to face are the tight budgets that the educational field typically works with.

"A really big question for educators is how these new digital textbooks will be licensed," said Jeff Orr, group director of consumer research at ABI Research, Oyster Bay, NY. "Are they part of existing agreements and costs, or will schools have to spend incrementally to replace textbooks with iPads and app licenses? 

"Are administrators willing to allocate funds to upgrade computers to media tablets, and additionally spend for digital versions of textbooks?," he said. "With budgets always being questioned, this may not be as straightforward as Apple or the publishers might like."

Tablet of choice
The news was announced at an event at New York?s Guggenheim Museum yesterday. It was Apple?s first event since the death of Steve Jobs in October.

The initiative will initially include a new textbook category in the iBookstore. At launch, it includes high-school textbooks from several publishers: Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin and children?s books from DK and the E.O. Wilson Foundation.

The textbooks are all priced $14.99 or less.

Apple also unveilved a revamped iTunes U app that allows teachers and professors to create online courses. The app is available to colleges and universities as well as K-12 educators.

ITunes U, which was launched four years ago, is used by 1,000 colleges and universities, according to Apple.

"Apple's conviction that it is time to reinvent the textbook is spot-on," said Katie Lewis, associate analyst of consumer devices at Yankee Group, Boston.  "Apple's concept is that publishers as well as teachers need ways to create and distribute interactive educational material to their classes.

"Because iPads are the tablet of choice in schools today, it only makes sense that Apple would be the one to re-invent the textbook," she said.

"With this move, Apple is solidifying its place, and the place of its iPad, in educational environments. If Apple is able to make it easy for publishers and educators to create and distribute content to students, the significance of this move could be tremendous with regard to iPad adoption in schools."

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York