Apple to Enter ‘Digital Textbook Industry’ at New York Media Event

Reuters

Apple is set to revolutionise the textbook and education industries by announcing new partnerships with publishers at a media event in New York this month, reports claim.

Tech blogs AllThingsD and TechCrunch both believe that Apple’s upcoming New York media event will indeed be about publishing and the iBookstore, rather than hardware such as the much-speculated iPad 3.

It has been known for some time that the late Steve Jobs wanted to enter the textbook industry with Apple; in his biography Walter Isaacson said: “His idea was to hire great textbook writers to create digital versions, and make them a feature of the iPad. In addition, he held meetings with major publishers, such as Pearson Education, about partnering with Apple.”

Home of all things Apple, MacRumors claims to have heard gossip indicating that Apple recently filmed “a series of short interviews with textbook industry executives.” The Apple blog believes that these interviews are similar in style to those often seen in Apple’s promotional videos for new products and services.

It is also believed, according to 9to5Mac, that the iTunes team are in “lockdown mode” heading up to the as-yet unconfirmed event.                More