Apple goes educational with digital textbook programme

Posted on 19 Jan 2012 at 09:08

An education-themed event from Apple due later today looks set to launch a digital textbook service, according to sources close to the company's project.

Although Apple is remaining tight-lipped until the official announcement later today, sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal claim that Apple has put productivity vice-president Roger Rosner, the man in charge of the iWork productivity suite, at the centre of a new project designed to encourage universities and schools to adopt the iPad as the electronic gizmo of choice.

The project, it is claimed, looks to create the tools required to develop and publish electronic textbooks that would be available through Apple's iTunes purchasing system for use on the iPad tablet range.

Unlike traditional textbooks, Apple's vision is to allow a wide range of interactivity through animations, videos, voice-overs and potentially even the use of embedded applications like equation editors and annotation tools in order to convince educational establishments that the day of the paper textbook has long since passed.

Apple already has some experience in this area: its iBook electronic bookstore has a selection of - significantly less interactive - electronic textbooks available, with Apple taking a 30 per cent cut of the proceeds for each sold. The App Store also contains a range of educational software, with Apple again taking a cut of the proceeds.

What isn't yet clear, however, is whether today's announcement will take the form of a fully-fledged service ready to launch, or simply the formation of a platform with a view to providing existing textbook publishers the tools they need to take advantage of the iPad as a publishing platform.

Author: Gareth Halfacree

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