ARN

Interactive e-books anticipated at Apple's NYC event

Announcement will take place this Thursday

Apple is expected to introduce interactive e-books for iOS devices at its education-themed announcement in New York on Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal describes "textbooks optimized for the iPad and that feature ways to interact with the content, as well as partnerships with publishers" as the subject of Apple's announcement, while Ars Technica promises what will be the "Garageband for e-books".

What it means by that is that Apple could announce tools to help create interactive e-books, not just digital textbooks for students to use. Apple will announce support for the ePub 3 standard going forward, the report says, which could lead to iBooks for the Mac platform, rather than it being limited to iOS as it is now.

Meanwhile, our colleagues over at Macworld US have made a few of their own predictions about the event. Lex Friedman and Dan Moren believe that as well as an e-book related announcement, there could be some iWork upgrades on the agenda too.

"I think Apple might feel that it's let Microsoft rule the education market with Office for far too long now. And as Cupertino has increasingly made inroads into education via its compelling hardware, it seems only fitting that it reassert its software products in that market as well, harkening back to the glory days of the Apple II. So, perhaps we'll see some education-specific upgrades to iWork that will merit attention during the event," Dan said.

We'll have to wait until Thursday to find out. The announcement is due to take place at 3pm GMT.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

More about: Apple, Microsoft, Wall Street
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the ARN comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Apple, Apple Education, consumer electronics, hardware systems, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Mac Creative, Mac software, Microsoft, smartphones, tablets, wall street journal
ARN Directory | Distributors relevant to this article
Aquion , ASI Solutions , Australasian PC Distributors (APCD) , Avnet Technology Solutions , Bluechip Infotech , Brightpoint Australia , Compucon Computers , Dicker Data , Express Data , Express Online , ICT Distribution , Impact Systems Technology , Leader Computers , NewLease , Synnex Australia , Topstar Computer International , XiT Distribution , Xpress I.T.
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events.
ARN Distributor Directory
Find distributors by name | vendor | location
Channel Deals
/deals/aca-pacific/436_receive-15-off-sap-crystal-server-and-designer
ACA Pacific

Receive 18% off SAP Crystal Server and Designer Licenses. Offer Ends June 28th, 2012.

More details »
ARN Vendor Directory
Find vendors by name | category

iAsset is a channel management ecosystem that automates all major aspects of the entire sales,marketing and service process, including data tracking, integrated learning, knowledge management and product lifecycle management.