Apple iBooks 2 e-Textbook

"We're here at Apple's education-flavored event at the Guggenheim museum in New York City.
Phil Schiller has taken to the stage and announced that Apple's "reinventing the textbook" by launching iBooks 2. There are 1.5 million iPads currently in use in educational programs and 20,000 educational apps available for the platform"

Apple launches iBooks 2 e-Textbook platform -- Engadget

If its cheaper than iPad 2 with similar specs i am gonna consider it instead of a iPad 3 "It will have a much much better screen according to rumors compared to iPad 2"

 

Replacing paper textbooks with e-textbooks is a great idea, but a $500+ luxury tablet isn't the right hardware for the job. I think the iPad 3 should go unapologetic luxury (high-res screen, quad-core processor, etc) and start at about $650, and then there should be an "iPad Mini" that's 7", no-webcam, $200-$300 model that's targeted at students and Fire/NookTablet owners.

Also, some of the first textbooks on the iBooks store are as large as 2.7 Gb per textbook. Seriously. Unbelievable.

 

No, but selling a second gen iPad for $300 alongside the iPad 3 would be an appealing option. Not certain I see Apple really doing it, though.

I don't think that 2.7 GB for a textbook is all that bad. Most won't necessarily be that large, and a 16GB iPad should be able to handle most of the books you'd need on a particular day.

32GB should handle them all, but that seems unreasonably large for an e-textbook reader.

 

I don't either. A $300 iPad 2 would annihilate the Fire and Nook Tablet in the marketplace, but it just doesn't mesh with Apple's steady march upmarket.

It's no problem for someone who re-loads their tablet with new content every morning and doesn't store much on it besides their schoolwork. But I think most people buying a $500 tablet would expect it to hold all their semesters' textbooks at once AND leave them a decent amount of space for recreational content. A 16 GB tablet is going to have trouble doing that.

I'm just shocked that a book--even with color illustrations--can be anywhere near that size. I mean, aren't most movies about half that size? And that's two hours of high-resolution video!

 

Depends on the resolution of the video. Video with audio developed specially for the iPad / iPad 2 might take about 2800 kbps. That's potentially ~20 MB per minute of content. I suspect that these books contain a significant amount of video, and that might contribute to the size.

 

rather syncing it to the iPad every morning , books should be available to be read in the iCloud and also required section synced to be available offline for the day...

 

I guess you got something wrong. Apple doesn't sell any new ebook reader hardware, they simply made cooperations with 3 big textbook publishers, providing more content for the iPad 2. You will still need an iPad for it.

Talking about the size of the textbooks, I don't think all of them will take 2.7gb. The big ones were only meant for the presentation to demonstrate all the possibilities. I guess in the next months most textbooks will be converted 1:1 from they analog versions only.

 

Well, I can understand that for high school students when using their own iPad but many high schools (notice I said many and not most) are providing them in the classroom. Additionally, from a college perspective, a $500 iPad isn't that much so long as the textbooks carry a lower cost. It was pretty common for me to spend $450 in a single semester for textbooks alone. Decrease the cost of the eTextbooks (or e-textbooks, I don't know what they are calling them) and that would be a nice deal. I am not sure if the costs are lower though as they don't have any college books on there that I could use (i.e. engineering grad school, that is a small niche).

 

Apple said, all iBooks will be available for less than 15 dollars.

 

That will be nice then. I would have gladly paid $500 for an iPad 2 and $15 per book. That would have essentially paid for itself over a 5 year period. I spent an average of about $350 per semester for books. Sometimes it was $450 and even $500. other times it was $200. Still, I think the average was around $350. 10 semesters and that equates to $3500 in books not including any extra summer classes or software. That translates to $500 for the iPad (first semester) and then about $60 a semester for the books (assuming each book is $15) for a grand total of $1,100. Less than 1/3rd the cost of buying the physical textbooks while also getting an iPad (even a 3G 64GB iPad 2 would be less)? Yeah, I definitely would have done that.

Too bad Apple is concentrating on K-12 with this as I know college students (both undergrad and grad) would have definitely gone for this.

 

Unfortunately, tablets can't quite replace textbooks in their current form in my opinion. The screens are too bright, too uncomfortable to read for long sessions, difficult to traverse quickly (a lot of textbook work is not strictly linear), and difficult to annotate.

Once we have something along the lines of an eink hybrid display matched with iOS, we will be a lot closer. Really excellent search (possibly siri related) may be able to resolve traversal issues as well.

 

Sure it does - in recent years, Apple computers have become cheaper, and the iPhone 3GS is now free on contract, for example.

But as someone else commented, I suspect these textbooks were taking advantage of every single bell and whistle, just to show them all off.

I also don't expect the college texts, by and large, to be as cheap. The K-12 books are so affordable because instead of having each school buy a few and use them for several years, the publishers can now make you buy a new copy for every student every year...I suspect they'll end up making even more than before. It's just pushing a different cost onto the parents.

 

No, they said that high school textbooks would be capped at $15. They didn't say anything about a price cap for college or grad student textbooks. I would anticipate a price drop of 10-20% to account for saved printing costs, etc, but I certainly don't expect a college science text that cost $100+ in print to cost $15 on the iPad.

 

I'm still baffled that Apple offers the iBooks Author app for the Mac to create the books but we can't read iBooks on the Mac. What's up with that?

 

It is bizarre. I'll say from my Kindle PC app that reading on a computer screen is profoundly unsatisfying--the page is just too big to read comfortably (we're just not used to looking at pages with that much text)--but it would be nice to at least have the option.

And if textbooks are going to be on iBooks, I think it's even more important that they have an iBooks app for both Mac and PC--so that people who want to bring a laptop around instead of a tablet can do so.

 

It depends on many things. I paid nothing for most of my books, I just took them from the library or copied the relevant pages. In Germany, copying around 12% of the contents is allowed for school and universities. On the other side, books are more expensive. You won't get many paperbacks below 13 Euros here, because around 80% of the price are for the markets. E-books are mostly more expensive, because of the additional production of digital media. Still, most of the price is for the markets while the printing costs are really really low (around 1 Euro per paperback). The only books which are cheaper are already in the ibookstore (black magician's trilogy book one: 9.99 Euros in store, 7.99 Euros in ibookstore).

As print media still dominate the market, the book companies don't like the digital versions as they fear to loose their money. We don't have any digital schoolbooks at the moment. In universities, most digital versions are manually created by scanning the printed versions.

However, for all the books I really bought for university, I paid around 300 Euros in 4 years. Most of them are paperbacks for around 15 Euros.

 

That's really interesting, the US e-book market is VERY different. I spent $500 per semester ($1000 per year) on university textbooks, so even a 20% reduction in textbook cost because of e-books would have been wonderful.

For recreational reading, e-books (mainly through Amazon and Barnes & Noble) are rapidly outpacing print books, to the point where one major bookstore chain has gone bankrupt (Borders) and Barnes and Noble's physical stores are focusing more and more on selling e-readers and tablets, educational toys, coffee, etc as more and more books are bought online instead of through their physical stores. And e-books are very cheap here--generally about the price of a mass-market paperback (those cheap paperbacks with tiny print and the pages that yellow quickly).

 

In Germany, it is forbidden by law to sell books for lower prices in the first 18 months after release. This applies to printed books as well as e-books. The publishers set a price and every store - including the big ones like amazon and the small local bookstores - has to sell for the same price.

I buy most of my books as used ones from amazon. Makes them even cheaper

 

Why not? Currently there are 3 iPhones to choose from - 3GS -free, 4 -cheaper than before and 4S. I can't see any real reason, why they wont go this way with the iPad as well. New iPad 3, priced the same as the iPad 2 is at the moment, and old iPad 2 with lower prices - it becomes clear winner for the students, and it would gain market share in the cheaper segment, without making an entirely new smaller one.

Anyways, eTextbooks are GREAT! When the rest of the world would see them (localized) is out of question though

 

I am still surprised that college students (undergrad and grad) are being snubbed out of this. I understand where Apple is going as they can enter lucrative contracts with schools to provide equipment (or go through 3rd party contracts). My old high school has replaced all of their laptop carts with iPad carts. They have a series of small carts housing 35 16GB wi-fi iPad 2's and a Mac Mini server (though I think it is an older, non-Sandy Bridge model). They plug the cart into a single AC outlet and then plug a gigabit ethernet connection into the wall. That is it, the cart is now broadcasting a wi-fi connection that only those iPad's can connect to.

I was told that the cart cost the school about half as much as the old notebook ones yet came with 15 more iPads (the notebook ones had 20 for the students to use so a classroom would often reserve two carts). So I understand why Apple wants to get in on this, it just seems like college students are the perfect demographic to go after. I see more and more iPads around campus on a daily basis with many students using them in class. I use my iPad every single day of class to take notes (Notes Plus or iAnnotate) and then I carry it over to my research lab and use it the same way (while also flipping through Excel files containing data).

Apple is ignoring that crowd and is instead focusing on K-12 schools. To me, it would make more sense to start contracts with college textbook publishers to get their content onto the iPad. I would much rather pay $15 (or even $70-$100) for a college textbook on my iPad than $180 for the actual 12 lb book itself.

 

1. They do not ignore the colleges. But they need to start somewhere and see, if it works. I guess they just want to make one step after the other. 2. Colleges may use ITunes U as well, where universities publish excellent content. 3. They've got a contract with Pearson, so universities may be their next target. The only real expensive book (around 50 Euros in Germany) in my studies was "Psychology" by Zimbardo/Gerrig, published by Pearson.

 

Don't count on getting a $180 textbook for $15. When they expand their selection into universities, they'll either give up the $15 price cap or they won't have anybody willing to sell books on them. It's as simple as that.

With a $180 textbook, most of that money is going to the half-dozen authors and the publisher. It's not like it's $15 to the publisher and authors and $165 of printing costs.

 

Both have their pros and cons. It would be easier to search for stuff in a hurry on an ipad, but book is bigger and easier to read and you can flip pages faster.

 

1. They currently are. I understand they have to start somewhere but the additional of college textbooks would not be all that difficult. Instead they have textbooks not even suitable for anything beyond the 6th grade.

2. iTunes U is not a suitable textbook replacement. A small amount of universities (and I mean a really small amount) may choose to offer supplementary material on there but it does absolutely nothing for courses which require the purchase of a specific textbook.

3. At this point, unless the e-textbook thing kicks off in the K-12 sector, I highly doubt Apple will push it beyond anything higher.

4. That is in Germany. Just a few weeks ago, I spent $180 (136 euros) on a textbook and that is common practice. One of my undergraduate books set me back by $240. It is quite common for students to spend $300-$500 in books for a single semester here in the U.S. Costs generally go up with more complicated majors. For example, someone studying wildlife sciences is not going to spend nearly as much for textbooks as another student studying civil engineering. The wildlife major will likely only spend $150-$200 books a semester whereas the civil engineer can easily spend $500.

 

I think you actually addressed your own concerns in this post. This may be exactly Apple's reasoning for not extending the textbooks to colleges just yet. Why dive in full force without putting your feet in the water first? (Sorry for the metaphor... ).

A good example is the AppleTV. Although a very fine product, it hasn't had even a fraction of the success of the iPhone or the iPad. It's not smart business to invest into something without testing first.

 

I think they should start their college focus with social sciences and humanities. Instead of having one $100 book per class, I had a half-dozen $20 books per class, both primary sources (i.e., Beowulf) and secondary sources (i.e., Literary Trends in Anglo-Saxon Britain...not a real title, but stuff like that). I think that sort of setup is better suited to iBooks than a $100-$200 engineering text.

 

It's not really just up to apple. They have to get support from publishers and universities before implementing something like this. It's not about the technology, it's about the signatures. I'm sure they have talks about this with publishers, but who knows where they are in terms of those talks?

 

Come on, this is Apple. They pushed for legal online downloading, they pushed for the record companies to drop DRM, they now allow you to download purchased TV shows as many times as you want (there was also a time when you could rent them), and they are still in the e-book race despite not being as hot as Amazon. Time and time again, Apple has almost always had their way with media publishers. They forever changed the face of the music industry.

I know that the inner workings of the negotiations between book publishers and Apple will never be public but all Apple needs to do is push and the publishers will eventually fall over. Right now it appears that Apple isn't pushing for much.

 

It's sort of hard to say unless you're in the board room. These discussions traditionally haven't been public, so our only perspective is that of the end result. Now, we are here speculating about the future, and we don't really have any frame of reference.

Besides that, Apple still hasn't released (or possibly developed) the technology to handle ebooks appropriately. They haven't put out any e-ink solutions, and no matter how much you like the iPad in it's current state, it simply cannot replace college textbooks.

The iPad still needs at least a significant battery life boost and e-ink, before it could replace college textbooks.

 

The music industry is actually making some money because of apple, since there is lot of piracy of movies and music. Now, who can "pirate" books?

I know colleges where your textbook is basically your laptop (some pharmacy schools are known for it), but a laptop screen is bigger than an ipad. Also, they might need a "kindle" ipad that doesn't run out of power in couple of hours. Schools work because there is a set structure for education, but college courses are varied.

 

I also agree that the situation was very different with the music industry. On the one hand, they own all the intellectual property rights and are in the position to bully to some degree.

At the same time, they were totally falling apart and needed to make buying music a mainstream activity.

The textbook industry is quite different.

 

Yeah, with the music industry, iTunes offered a way to make money in an industry where IP violations were the norm and not the exception. With the textbook industry, Apple is asking publishers to step from a medium where IP violations are extremely rare (physical textbooks) to one where piracy could be absolutely rampant (e-books). If I was a textbook author or publisher, I'd ask one question: what's the upside to me?

 

Although the music industry was different, I used it to prove a point that Apple had their way with that line of business. Book sales in general are down and publishers know this. That is why they are being pushed to e-books. Textbooks, on the other hand, tend to draw a more constant form of revenue since everyone buys textbooks when they go to college. Having said that, Apple can still push for their services much like they did for the music industry. I know plenty of people who would stop renting textbooks from the university library if they could buy them at a discounted price through a service like iBooks. Either way, Apple seems to be pushing the media companies one way or another so it shouldn't be that difficult for them to deal with textbook publishers and copyright holders.

P.S. I don't know where people attended college but where I am at right now, textbook piracy is pretty rampant. People have PDF files of many $150+ textbooks that they share with each other instead of buying them.

 

Again, Apple has a lot of pull with media companies which sell music and movies - in large part because we have a culture of piracy surrounding those mediums.

Textbooks are different. Although some people share pdf textbooks, it's really not a part of our culture. I think a major part of that comes down to the fact that the pirates really can't offer a better quality product (or even equal quality) than the book itself.

I'm not sure I'm following your logic. Music sales in particular were suffering, movie sales also - so Apple had a lot of pull and was able to get them to compromise to get onto their platform. Textbook sales are strong, but Apple still has a lot of pull? Why?

 

Just looking at their past record. Apple is Apple and they have a lot of pull no matter what sector they get into. Come on, they ware the second most value U.S. company and fight back and forth with Exxon for the #1 spot. If Apple can tack the spot of an oil company as the most valuable in the U.S., they can push the textbook publishers for higher level education to offer their products at reasonable prices.

 

I was in college from 1999 to 2003, and I never saw people doing that, but things easily could have changed in the decade since then.

I don't think Apple's had a history of pulling other people into something where there's no upside to them. Music, movies, recreational books--all of these industries were struggling and needed a way to stimulate sales. Apple's ecosystem allowed them to do that. But with textbooks, there's no need to stimulate sales--you've got a captive audience. To the contrary, e-textbooks would hurt sales by making piracy far easier. Unless textbook publishers had a vastly higher profit margin--and since this is promising to be far cheaper than paper textbooks, I don't see that happening--I'm just not seeing any incentive. And it doesn't matter that Apple is big, if they don't have any reason to get textbook sellers to sign up, most won't.

 

Apple can't just go up to the textbook publishers and say "hey- we're a huge company, so give us your textbook rights"

They would have to make an arrangement that benefits both sides.

I'm still in university. PDF sharing of textbooks is not a big thing at my institution. The physical book tends to be desired for comfortable reading for long periods of time. Music sharing, on the other hand... well...

 

Perhaps with all the talk of small govt and the resultant reduction in educational funding, the enrollments in universities / colleges might drop significantly causing the publishers to run to apple as only rich people could afford college anymore?

Just a thought...

 

maybe... seems like a stretch.

 

Enrollment of universities would drop if they stop giving out scholarships. However, since many universities receive money from various groups, companies, investors, and the government, I highly doubt a loss of funds from the U.S. government is going to cause that much of a flux. In fact, so long as a GPA of 2.5 (and above) was maintained at my old university, the lottery would kick in and pay for tuition (not for frees or taxes though). That essentially turns a $2500/semester cost into a $600/semester fee. Now, if the lottery were to fail, my older university would be in big trouble.

I still think Apple has tons of pull when it comes to college textbooks and they can easily make the venture profitable for either side. Textbook publishers will eventually have to adopt to newer technology standards, they can't stay the same and expect the rest of the world to adapt to them. It is only a matter of time before college textbook publishers hop on board the digital distribution bandwagon (especially since they are really the last group waiting to do this) if only to appease to the needs of students and the input from professors.

All it would take is for professors to stop requiring the textbooks and instead offer "supplementary" packages that are copied pages from the books (which is something my old university started doing, they would charge $15 for manuals for the upper level classes that essentially contained copied pages from various textbooks).

 

I doubt it. Public colleges and universities are primarily funded by the states, not the federal government. They'd have to cut programs if they lost federal funding, but they wouldn't shut down to the point where there was no purpose in getting a bachelor's degree.

Also, EVEN IF enrollment dropped by a massive 50%, why would that encourage textbook sellers to go to Apple? Whether they're selling 10,000 copies to a captive audience or 20,000 copies to a captive audience, it's the same dynamic--you're less likely to get pirated selling paper copies than selling e-textbooks, and there's no counterbalancing benefit to the publisher to sell e-textbooks.

 

I sometimes wonder about my own degrees. No, they aren't some philosophy and/or polit science degrees, but actually life and chemical sciences degrees.

 

Tangent: you need to update your sig; the sig and the thread it links to disagree

A degree isn't a guarantee of finding good work, particularly in a bad economy. But it dramatically, dramatically improves your odds. Schools would really have to be completely worthless for the degree to be no better than a high school diploma, and a cut in federal funding won't result in that.

 

Mitlov raises a really good point: the success of the university as an institution has no bearing on whether apple will be able to secure the license to sell digital textbooks.

The conditions have to be ripe in a very specific way, and ultimately Apple's offering has to be positive for the company on the receiving end of it, regardless of how big a company Apple may be.

I'm not sure how much they can offer to textbook publishers right at this moment given their current state of technology.