Apple tackles textbooks with iBooks 2 for iPad

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) introduced the free iBooks 2 application, highlighted by the inclusion of new interactive textbooks designed to revolutionize the educational publishing business. Apple concurrently unveiled iBooks Author, a self-publishing tool enabling Mac users to create and sell their own iBooks titles.

iBooks textbooks bring fullscreen educational experiences optimized for Apple's iPad tablet, complete with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos. Apple notes that the digital textbook model enables publishers to keep content up to date, while offering students a more affordable and more portable alternative to traditional printed volumes. Educational services firms Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson have already signed on to offer titles via Apple's iBookstore, with most priced at $14.99 or less--according to National Association of College Stores data, the price for new printed textbooks averages around $62.

In a statement, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller said 1.5 million iPads are already in use across educational institutions, including more than 1,000 one-to-one deployments. Apple's iTunes U app promises students access to more than 20,000 education apps and a wealth of free educational content.

Apple's new iBooks Author tool, available as a free download from its Mac Store, enables aspiring writers to format their own textbooks, cookbooks, history books and picture books using Apple-designed templates touting a variety of page layouts. Users can input text and images by dragging and dropping content, while Multi-Touch widgets allow for the addition of interactive photo galleries, movies, keynote presentations and 3D objects.

The Verge reports Apple's End User License Agreement stipulates that all titles created with iBooks Author can only be sold through the iBookstore, with Apple claiming a 30 percent cut of all sales. In addition, all releases are wrapped in Digital Rights Management software that limits their distribution across the iBooks platform.

For more:
- read this release
- read this The Verge article

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