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News & ArtsThursday, January 19, 2012
Tech / Books Apple Is Getting Into the Textbook Business: What Do You Think?
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 10:35 AM
This morning, Apple announced iBooks 2, a textbook platform for the iPad. According to Engadget, they've partnered with "Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt," which "are responsible for 90 percent of all textbooks sold," along with DK and the E.O. Wilson Foundation. The Verge has some hands-on video of these e-textbooks at work. Apple promises that these textbooks will cost $14.99 or less. They eat up a lot of storage—one of the seven books in the iBooks 2 store right now is 3 GB—which to me suggests that the upcoming iPad 3 is probably going to start at a higher base than 16 GB. In addition, Apple is blowing out iTunes U from its current role as a storehouse of lectures into what Engadget calls "full course materials," including integration with the e-textbooks.
And a free app called iBooks Author was announced today, too. It's a little less impressive than the "GarageBand for E-books" that people were anticipating—The Verge says "there's no WYSIWYG to build 3D objects from scratch or code HTML5 elements, you'll have to do that externally"—but the basic tools are there for anyone to create and publish a textbook-like e-book with Apple.
So, we have more affordable (after the initial $499 minimum outlay for an iPad) textbooks, an alliance with the major textbook publishers, a platform for distributing course materials, and a way to easily create and sell textbooks. What do you think?
2
Nobody in college uses books, period. This teched-out generation barely has the attention span for 140-character Twitter messages. I fear the future.
3
I don't know if it will really take off, but on paper it's attractive. Instead of paying $300 for 50 lbs. of textbooks you have to schlep around every day, you could theoretically pay $45 and have everything on your (lightweight) iPad. That's gonna be enough for a lot of people to at least try it out.
4
My husband is taking a college course and just paid 165.00 for a 300 page paperback. They didn't even ask him to bend over. He would have bought an e-textbook in a heartbeat had it been available.
5
I could see this taking off. The technology is finally there. $14.99 or less is a pretty good price...
6
I can't stand e-textbooks and I happily paid many, many dollars for real, heavy, physical books as an undergraduate. Not everybody feels the same way, though, so I think there will be many people happy to get e-versions. The problem will be availability, I think. Do most textbooks have electronic versions?
8
So funny that this is coming out the day after SOPA and PIPA protests. Of course publishers want to go to ebooks. That way, they destroy the secondary market for their products and force all students to buy the newest edition, without all of that changing the pictures and updating the sports analogies and printing on thinner paper that they have to do now.
There's already a push for schools to get custom printed text books for math curricula. Say an author has a 25 chapter book, but your class only covers the first 15 chapters, and skips or abridges others? Tada, custom book gets you exactly what you teach, and makes it impossible for students to resell the book.
Don't think, though, that prices on such books are going to be or stay low for long, as textbook publishers need to make money somehow. They'll also likely switch to licensing books, aka renting them. You'll have to pay a lot for a book you don't really own. Great for classes you have to take and in fields you have no desire to study, not so good if you need them for future reference as an upperclassman, grad student, or teacher.
There's already a push for schools to get custom printed text books for math curricula. Say an author has a 25 chapter book, but your class only covers the first 15 chapters, and skips or abridges others? Tada, custom book gets you exactly what you teach, and makes it impossible for students to resell the book.
Don't think, though, that prices on such books are going to be or stay low for long, as textbook publishers need to make money somehow. They'll also likely switch to licensing books, aka renting them. You'll have to pay a lot for a book you don't really own. Great for classes you have to take and in fields you have no desire to study, not so good if you need them for future reference as an upperclassman, grad student, or teacher.
9
The cost alone is going to motivate folks into giving it a try. Nook eTextbooks sell for $40-$70, rent for $20-$50.
10
Why would Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt agree to convert books that sell for $100-200 a pop to e-format and sell them for $14.99?
I'm sure the current profit on many of those books is more than $14.99.
I'm sure the current profit on many of those books is more than $14.99.
11
You missed the part where any publisher selling through iBooks is forbidden from selling their textbooks electronically anywhere else.
I now await the outcry from the same people who got so enraged when Microsoft did such things. But that would require thinking, instead of just living off Apple press releases...
I now await the outcry from the same people who got so enraged when Microsoft did such things. But that would require thinking, instead of just living off Apple press releases...
12
For me it would depend on how interactive the textbooks are: can I annotate, highlight, tag/keyword, and index? Could I select a passage for citing in a paper, paste it into the paper, and get a proper citation according to whatever format I specified (MLA, APA, whatever)?
And yes, I'd rent textbooks I didn't want to keep, but there would be plenty I'd like to be able to refer to later.
And yes, I'd rent textbooks I didn't want to keep, but there would be plenty I'd like to be able to refer to later.
13
More interesting to me is the *non*-textbook angle: Unless I'm missing something, it looks like Apple has just opened up the iBookstore to self-publishing. Just download iBooks Author, save your book as a iBook-compatible ePub, sign up with Apple to sell through their bookstore, and you're in business. There's nothing that I can find limiting this process to textbooks -- Apple's [Book Publishing FAQ][1] even states that "All instructions and processes are the same for both publishing organizations and self-published authors."
[1]: http://www.apple.com/itunes/content-prov…
It also looks like, once you've created an iBook-optimized book file with iBooks Author, you're also free to distribute it on your own for free simply by posting the file for download.
The textbook/education push is getting all the press, but opening the iBookstore to self publishing (or small-press publishing) could be a big thing too...they're just not calling much attention to it just yet.
[1]: http://www.apple.com/itunes/content-prov…
It also looks like, once you've created an iBook-optimized book file with iBooks Author, you're also free to distribute it on your own for free simply by posting the file for download.
The textbook/education push is getting all the press, but opening the iBookstore to self publishing (or small-press publishing) could be a big thing too...they're just not calling much attention to it just yet.
14
@ 8, I think Apple probably has enough clout to get publishers to go along, like they did with the music industry and iTunes. One of the big reasons publishers got away with charging a lot is because of the much, much higher quality of the paper and binding used in textbooks - it's going to be hard to point to that when copies are electronic.
15
I like the idea of e-textbooks, especially if, as @12 says, they are highly interactive. If I could get enough of the texts I use regularly in a digital format, be able to annotate them, and extract properly formatted references instantly, I would strongly consider purchasing an iPad or similar product. I would also love to see referenced works and supporting materials linked to online if at all possible. As a student of art history, the prospect of embedded videos and high resolution color images (or links to such images and videos online) is exciting to me, I think e-textbooks could be potentially more useful to my field than regular ink on paper textbooks.
16
@8 - I bought used textbooks whenever I could, and still I never paid less than $30 for them - and this was in the 80s. Sure, this model guarantees all the money goes to the publisher and none to a reseller, but this seems like a huge win for the frugal student no matter how you look at it.
I don't mind a corporation profiting when they provide good products or services at reasonable prices.
I don't mind a corporation profiting when they provide good products or services at reasonable prices.
17
@8, @14: Also, previously textbooks would go from student to student, particularly in K-12. Now, every year each student will net them $15.
18
@16 and 17, that's what I said. Publishers love the idea of monopolizing content, and ebooks are a great way to do so.
@8, most textbooks now aren't well made. 1) they don't last long or are consumable, so they must be replaced annually and 2) that's part of why publishers squeeze out new editions every year or two at the college level--to force mass upgrades--so there's little need to make books that will last.
@8, most textbooks now aren't well made. 1) they don't last long or are consumable, so they must be replaced annually and 2) that's part of why publishers squeeze out new editions every year or two at the college level--to force mass upgrades--so there's little need to make books that will last.
19
@ 18, I didn't say they were well made, I said they were "higher quality" - higher than mass market books, which wouldn't last a week in a school environment. They aren't indestructible, but they do last longer and are more expensive to print and bind. And it's a "justification" for the higher price - probably going back to a time before the "slash costs" mentality took over all business. The quality undoubtedly isn't what it used to be, and naturally the savings weren't passed on to the customer.
I think you're using the word "editions" incorrectly. If they are in fact revisions, I can see them doing it solely for the purpose of selling more books, but not just to replace worn out copies. New printings of the current edition accomplish that nicely, and without the costs associated with writing and editing a new edition.
I think you're using the word "editions" incorrectly. If they are in fact revisions, I can see them doing it solely for the purpose of selling more books, but not just to replace worn out copies. New printings of the current edition accomplish that nicely, and without the costs associated with writing and editing a new edition.
20
Med students have been waiting for this for a few years now. We can't even go home most of the time, so having these books on the ipad or iphone is HUGE. Now we pass around a bunch of crappy digital editions of textbooks, but given the need for up-to-date info, our early-adopter tendencies and our desperation to buy anything that might make life a little easier, this could be a big hit. They'd have to do it up right, though. And I really don't see us getting that $15 price point. The iphone app for netters anatomy is already $75.
21
I wish they would partner with Project Gutenberg for classics and public domain works.
http://www.gutenberg.org/
http://www.gutenberg.org/
22
@19,. I really do mean new editions. There are plenty of calculus and biology and music appreciation and such texts out there in the 5th, 7th, or 13th edition. All are slightly different from previous editions (the sports analogies are updated in the math texts, different pictures in the biology texts, and so forth), and just enough so that Penguin or Pearson or whoever can say "new edition! the old one's problem sets don't match anymore! buy them again!" Check out half.com for used copies of Stewart's Calculus, for example, comparing the current with the previous editions.
Current editions of popular course books are rarely reprinted en masse, as the next new edition is right around the corner. In fact, the only text that I know of that was reprinted extensively without revision was a music history text that is a collection of scores of medieval to classical music, and that was because the editor didn't feel like getting rights to publish a CD set instead of LPs (sold as an option with the text well into the 2000s) to accompany it until recently.
In theory, for many basic classes you don't ever need to change text books, as the rules of algebra or the shape of amines or the notes in a Bach chorale don't change, but publishers change little things up to make money. I don't grudge businesses making a profit, but ebooks in this case are just another way that publishers are trying to make sure that they get as much money from students as possible.
Current editions of popular course books are rarely reprinted en masse, as the next new edition is right around the corner. In fact, the only text that I know of that was reprinted extensively without revision was a music history text that is a collection of scores of medieval to classical music, and that was because the editor didn't feel like getting rights to publish a CD set instead of LPs (sold as an option with the text well into the 2000s) to accompany it until recently.
In theory, for many basic classes you don't ever need to change text books, as the rules of algebra or the shape of amines or the notes in a Bach chorale don't change, but publishers change little things up to make money. I don't grudge businesses making a profit, but ebooks in this case are just another way that publishers are trying to make sure that they get as much money from students as possible.
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