iBooks textbook downloads roar
Apple’s digital textbook announcements, iBooks author in particular, have generated a lot of vituperation, which I often view as an omen of future success.But ignore all of that get back to what really matters — the numbers and the initial data’s looking good, very good indeed.
The haters are going to hate, period. But Global Equities Research has taken an extended look at the potential and found that producing iPad textbooks will cost 80 percent less than their print-on-paper cousins.
Another benefit is that iPad textbooks can be updated, almost at will, whereas bound books are essentially cut in stone for the five year period they’re used.
“[This is] a recipe for Apple’s success in the textbook industry,” said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry.
This divined wisdom is all well and fine, but lacks tangible impact for ordinary folks, like you and I.
However, Global Equities has more, estimating that more than 350,000 iBooks textbooks were downloaded over the first three days. Also, they believe educators, publishers and lookie-loos grabbed 90,000 copies of Apple’s text creation app iBooks Author.
And, don’t forget the multimedia, productivity and communication tools Apple already offers.
Students will now experience the most amazing textbooks they’ve ever read. They can flip through a book by sliding their finger along thumbnail images of the pages. If they don’t know the definition of a word, one tap takes them to a glossary or dictionary. No longer limited to a single picture to illustrate the text, now students can flick through a gorgeous photo gallery or dive into an image with interactive captions. They can use a finger to rotate a 3D object to show a human brain from every angle, or have the answer spring to life in an interactive chapter review.
Honestly, although it’s still very early days, it really looks like Apple’s about to hit the ball out of the park again…
What’s your take?
January 24th, 2012
I like the general direction Apple is taking with textbooks. Given current storage and bandwidth limitations, interactive books with large file sizes will probably not be big sellers initially.
Also, iBooks Author is really just an application that creates containers for creativity. All the interactive elements that will be most engaging (3D Models, HTML widgets, Keynote presentations, and the photo in photo slide shows) will still have to be created in other applications.
Keep at it Apple and be sure to add indexing, references with live links to a copy of the referenced work, inline and collected footnotes, and a means to enter mathematical equations directly in the application.
February 3rd, 2012
I really like that Apple did this with textbooks. Sure, many people will argue that other makers have done this already such as Kindle and Nook, but as an iPad and iBook user, I feel it is much smoother. I actually bought 2 of my textbooks from Apple, and the last I bought from Barnes and Noble. It is such a relief not having to lug around two science books along with a math book. I’m sure it has saved my back some trouble too! They update themselves, aren’t nearly as much as normal textbooks, and I can write in them whenever I want and put my notes. My point is, as a college student, it really makes a difference with these books.