Apple announced iBooks 2 last week Thursday, and with just over a week since the release it looks like Apple can pat itself on the back.
Apple said it’s new app offers “an entirely new kind of textbook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive.” Interactive textbooks sounds fantastic, especially to someone who spends a lot of time with their nose stuffed in a wordy textbook for class. But wait, where would the money go?
At the college level many professors write their own books for the classes they teach and only really see royalties if students are buying new copies of their texts. Most students don’t give into the shiny new covers though, instead students make a b-line for the used or rental options. Let’s be fair, most college students are broke anyway.
Now that iBooks 2 is coming into the textbook scene professors who choose to use the app can cut down on production costs and make an electronic version (interactive or not) for their students to purchase. In order for any student to purchase an iBook text an e-reading device is absolutely necessary. Laptops and desktops cannot take part in this innovation.
Also, apple gets to take a cut off all texts created or purchased through the app, and there are no rental options. So college students not only have to fork out money for an ereader, they have to buy all texts through an app even if a friend took the class last semester. So, no more borrowing old texts and no more selling books back at the end of a semester.
Let’s just say I’m not a fan of iBooks for college texts, sorry trees. On the other hand I do like the idea for young authors who don’t have a publisher. For example, the comic strip creator of Diesel Sweeties used the app to create a free e-book over the course of a weekend. The result was over 10,000 downloads in 3 days.
The iBooks app can also publish to a PDF format, making it readable on computers, but there will be apple branding on the product. Not a terrible thing, unless you’re a professor that wants to be sure to receive payment for your work…in which case I guess students can get refurbished eReaders from a number of online distributors.
