Apple Inc. is mounting a new education push for the iPad, centered around digital interactive textbooks in a newly dubbed iBooks 2 store.
The company unveiled its plans at an event in New York City on Thursday morning.
Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) marketing chief Phil Schiller introduced the new iBooks 2, showing how it brings to textbooks the same touchscreen and video capabilities that the iPad features now for other books.
The aim is to broaden the amount of educational materials available for the iPad, particularly for students in kindergarten to 12th grade.
New software from the company called iBooks Author enables writers to publish content in a digital format, similar to something Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) does with direct publishing tools it offers.
Apple said it will also help large publishers create digital versions of textbooks, featuring embedded graphics and video.
The publishers it is partnering with include Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in an effort to cut the costs of textbooks by providing them in mobile format that is regularly updated and that students will be able to keep forever.
The new iPad textbooks will be featured in a new category on the iBooks 2 store called Textbooks. Most initial offerings will be aimed at high school students and cost $14.99 or less.
Apple also said it is updating its iTunes U app, letting students using iPads have access to its catalog of free educational content and more than 20,000 education apps.
Click here to read the press release about Apple's new education push.
Click here to read the press release about the updated iTunes U.
Written by Cromwell Schubarth. Contact him at cschubarth@bizjournals.com or 408.299.1823.
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