I am all in favor for "physical" books, I love owning them and there are some books on my shelf that I bought for university, which I am really proud to have.
But I can also see a lot of advantages to Apple's approach.
The digital textbooks sure are a great thing, they offer tons of opportunities and for certain fields they may provide an advantage over regular books.
Can I see myself using them: damn sure.
Can I see myself using only them: damn sure not.
Of course, Apple presents digital textbooks like they are gonna replace each and every physical textbook in the world within the next six months.
They have to, it's their product.
But no one forces us to buy them. It's not like regular books are gonna be abolished.
But for certain uses, I see a clear market for those digital textbooks.
Just look at me, I am from the medical field, nuclear medicine to be precise.
I am still learning and one thing that bothered me about books in our field is that 1. each of those books costs like a fortune, 200 - 300 Euros and 2. that the images (and nuclear medicine lives of images) are usually looking crappy as hell. Mostly bad black and white prints, sometimes color, but really low resolution, too light or too dark.
Now throw me a textbooks covering a subject like that with interactive features like great images, studies to actually scan through, 3D models etc. and I am sure in for the ride.
I could also imagine that those textbooks could be great for Radiology or for interactive Anatomy Atlases.
When I was a student at med school, I used to carry around those big atlases, usually they are in two volumes or more. They are not really handy and finding something means flipping through tons and tons of pages.
Now I imagine an Anatomy Atlas on my iPad in a digital form.
I can easily access images that show certain structures, open 3D models, turn them around with my finger tips, zoom in and out, add or remove structures, really get the feel of how and arm or a leg is built. I imagine that I can actually access additional information, CT scans, histological images, additional information to muscles, nerves and vessels.
You know, the possibilities are endless...and while I will still be reading my paperback fantasy novel in my living room chair, I can really see myself at work with my iPad scanning through the latest compendium on PET/CT scans looking up even the rarest conditions.
It's cool they started this off, I hope it gains momentum.