Following last week’s Apple Education event where iBooks and iBooks Author were introduced, there have been over 350,000 textbooks downloaded from iBooks. The numbers were extrapolated by Global Equities Research, which has a proprietary tracking system. iBooks Author, the free tool used to create iBooks, saw over 90,000 downloads.
While some outlets are claiming these numbers translate into success for Apple’s new venture, you have to consider that many are downloading purely out of curiosity. Interest level is high, which is definitely a good thing for Apple and their new textbook initiative. The cost to produce an iBook is 80 percent less than required for a print publication. This new distribution system through iBooks would mean that a single textbook would not be reused in some fashion over a five year period. Students would buy new iBooks yearly.
“[This is] a recipe for Apple’s success in the textbook industry,” said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry.
Source: All Things D
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