There is speculation that Apple will make public new tools that will revolutionize how students purchase textbooks. This seems logical, with the textbook industry being worth around $8 billion dollars in 2010, many students already owning iPads or other Apple products that could be used to display the textbook, and with Apples history of innovation. Walter Isaacson strengthened this theory in his biography of Steve Jobs by mentioning jobs’ interest in the market.
It is confirmed that Apple will be holding an event at the Guggenheim Museum that will focus on education this Thursday. It is possible that this is the event where Apple will reveal their new gadgets. According to Ars Technica, the gadgets will be something upon the lines of “GarageBand for e-books.” If this is the case, this will be the first attempt to make serious changes in the textbook market over the past decade.
This is incredibly interesting to me as a student. Textbooks have cost me hundreds of dollars every semester, are relatively worthless at the end of the semester, and are a hassle to lug around all the time. If Apple does enter the textbook markets, it could save students like myself thousands of dollars over their academic careers and would make the purchase and transportation of these textbooks much more convenient.
http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/17/apple-textbooks-ebooks/
#textbook #education #Apple
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