“McGraw-Hill Education, the third largest educational publisher in the U.S. by sales, is discussing getting electronic textbooks and parts of its online learning system onto the tablet, say two people,” Ante reports. “Apple has also held talks with trade book publisher Hachette Book Group about distributing e-books on the tablet, says one person involved in the discussions.”
“Apple’s tablet, due to be introduced Jan. 27, is likely to feature content from a wide range of book, magazine, and newspaper publishers, as well as entertainment,” Ante reports. “Apple’s strategy is to combine cutting-edge hardware design with access to music, video, games, and other applications.”
Ante reports, “Publisher John Wiley & Sons also has talked with Apple about including Wiley content on Apple devices, says Peter Balis, director of digital content sales at Wiley. “We have had ongoing conversations with Apple about their interest in including educational content,” Balis says. “We will continue to support their efforts in whatever iteration it takes next week.” He declined to comment specifically on the tablet… HarperCollins Publishers is negotiating with Apple to make electronic books available for the tablet, The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 18. ‘I have heard a lot of publishers are working with Apple,” says Kathy Mickey, senior analyst with Simba Information.'”
“McGraw-Hill has been in discussions with Apple about the tablet for the past year, the people say,” Ante reports. “In October, McGraw-Hill announced it was making 600 of its business titles available as e-books for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The savings on textbooks alone could pay for Apple tablets for tens of millions, making the device a must-have no-brainer for students.
The publishers of textbooks will make massive savings with no print or distribution required but will they really pass on all these savings to schools, colleges and students? I doubt it.
If this comes to frution, those $$$$ (paper) books will become obsolete in 5 years or less with mass adoption. Imagine all universities and colleges throughout the nation using e-books…it can’t come soon enough for me.
I have two kids on college. One in Wisconsin rents books at $75 a semester. The one in Minnesota I just paid $667 for the semester.
If all these reports are accurate, Apple is set to jump 5 years (or more) ahead of a mostly non-existant group of competitors. This is beginning to make iPod domination look pale, comparitively.
I can’t wait for the 27th!!!!!!
@silver:
Then I guess you can’t wait to get screwed at resale time. Unless, of course the e-versions are cheap enough to begin with to make it financially worthwhile not to be able to resell for 50%. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though. As hard as the publishers are pushing this, it makes me suspicious. After all, they already have a captive market. What’s in it for them other than increased profits? BOHICA!
Boy o boy. I can’t wait till they announce something else other than the tablet.
I wished they had this in the sixties when I was in school. I remember all too well the heavy backpack full of textbooks walking down a crowded hallway trying to get to class on time.
“When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.” — Eric Hoffer
Whats in it for them is simply the fact as with all new technology that becomes the norm if you aren’t part of it you are increasingly a dogs dinner (poor quality, soon eaten or thrown away). Even without such a life permeating device, libraries are struggling to maintain a raison d’être as are newspapers and magazines, just check out the falling sales. The opportunity and potential for education using such a device is hardly being contemplated at the moment but will eventually completely lay to waste the concept of the cheap traditional computer. As per usual what you need is the end to end structure to make the potential into reality which is why previous attempts at such a device that simply aim to replace a laptop have failed.
Remember the car was invented in the 18th century but failed mainly due to the lack of suitable roads so years later we got the railways (especially when steam road vehicles were banned in Britain). Apple have long understood the basic requirement of success, strange how despite a history of evidence the competitors fail to do so.
As a librarian I predict MASSIVE Changes for libraries – think about it..
Reading a new book now called One Second After by William R. Forstch (2009).
It is about society after an EMP blast over our country.
Good book. Has me thinking about all the electronic devices we are dependent on.
Students going to all digital distribution would fit nicely into his book.
Hoping for new text to speech tech. Who wants to stare at a screen craning your neck to read books on a tablet you can’t hold in one hand? Fine for magazines but please, not books. Digital books should be audio books.
“Digital books should be audio books.”
Good point, though speech synthesis would also solve the problem. Hopefully the iTablet will have good speech synthesis, something like what Cepstral offers now. (Listening to the built-in OS X voices could get a little tiring on the ears.)
Duh, I read the last part of your comment without reading the first, which mentioned text to speech. Time for another cup of coffee…
Next question is, how many universities will include the tablet as part of student tuition/fee (like they did with first Mac).
For me to use e-textbooks I would need the ability to mark them — by highlighting text and writing in the margins — and have the marks remain with the text until I chose to erase them. A textbook I can’t mark up would be useless to me. I know many other students who feel the same. Hope Apple keeps that in mind if they really want to replace standard textbooks.