Apple's announcement of their entry into the eTextbook market with leading publishers Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin has created a wave of speculation as to what it means for everyone involved in the educational market.  What is clear is that it will create a  surge in the adoption of the iPAD, which will put it further ahead of its rivals.  More importantly Apple's move has raised the bar by addressing users directly by creating a highly rich and interactive reading experience at a low price point.


As the emergence of the Kindle accelerated the adoption of eBooks primarily in trade publishing, we see this initiative as having a massive positive impact on the adoption of eTextbooks within the student community. Publishers now have a huge opportunity to enhance their content and optimise their delivery to the iPAD thereby tapping into the fastest growing market in 2012, ie iPAD users.

• Apple's move has raised the bar significantly for interactive reading experience which will be the benchmark for eTextbooks and rich eBooks.


• We anticipate that there will be a surge in demand by publishers to create rich textbooks in the iBookstore and to scale production cost effectively. We also anticipate publishers who create iBooks 2 would want the same functionality across all other mobile devices.


• We will shortly announce a comprehensive service offering for publishers looking to leverage the additional channel on the iBookstore. We believe our 10 years of experience building eTextbooks, ancillaries, and multimedia applications for book publishers can help us leverage the iBooks Author to realize the full potential of this new software.


• This announcement will create another significant channel for sales. Publishers should look to be present in all channels and continue to build direct relationships with their end users, by delivering their eBooks through their own platforms that should be mobile device agnostic.

This is a hugely significant initiative by Apple and represents a tremendous opportunity for publishers globally. We are excited and committed to working with our publishers to help maximise the potential of this announcement. For more information on our thoughts regarding iBooks 2, our services and how we can help you, please email us.