A Closer Look at iBooks Author, Textbooks and Exclusivity

[Smutchings]

I would love to see a single, device-agnostic format to emerge instead of more lock-in.

You can always use Kindle and submit to them? Apple are obviously going to support their own platform out of the gates, and that makes complete sense. The same reason Amazon only support Kindle for books, Windows only make Internet Explorer for PC, etc, etc. It's how it works.

iPad is not just a device, it is a platform; and that is where it comes in. It is also a platform that schools are acceptive of, as it has been showcased as an education device. iPod Touches have the word iPod in the title, and iPhones are phones; schoole don't like iPods or Phones.

 

[JS77]

I have never seen so much corporate propaganda as I just did in that video... I'm gobsmacked.

"It's all organized for you so you don't have to think about it"

That's exactly the problem, Apple, exactly the problem...

 

[rotarydialz]

Apple is once again trying something different. I hope it gets implemented on a wide scale.

 

[gnasher729]

The worst Thing is that there is no easy way to share it with your friends.
I would love to create fun interactive documents and share them to the iOS Devices of my friends..

If it is small, send it as an email. If it is large, copy it on a DVD and send it to them. Or ask them to plug their device into your Mac with iBook running.

I can't get over the fact that even if you submit a book and it gets REJECTED ......Apple STILL owns the IP for that book and you are NOT allowed to try and sell it elsewhere.

That's the price for using this software. However, what you are not allowed to sell is the iBook created by Apple's software. You have the complete rights to the contents that you used to create the iBook, and do with it whatever you want.

 

[entropys]

I would love to see a single, device-agnostic format to emerge instead of more lock-in.

For me iBooks is currently out of question because Amazon has a much broader selection of books (at least in my country), I already have a big collection on the Kindle and there is no e-paper device able to read iBooks as far as I know (the iPad is great but for eBook reading I cannot do without an e-paper device especially when outside).

Still in the future I would like to have the freedom to buy a book from whatever publisher and read it on whatever device. This would mean the best publisher wins the sale of the book, and the best device wins the sale of the device.

I can see the thought, but I would have to point out that an interactive iBook just wouldn't work on an e-reader. Those types of devices are for passive reading. And iBook Author will export the iBook to a PDF or ePub that can be read by e-readers like a kindle. The file just loses the high end features.

 

[MacBram]

Thanks to Arn for the clarification. I still think it would have been more convenient if you could use just one tool to create the content and then publish to Kindle and iBooks. They could have charged $40 for the tool and that would be ok. In this way I will continue to create the books in Pages and then import to iBooks Author for iBookstore and HTML output for the Kindle.

I really don't like proprietary formats and it looks like there is no easy way back to Pages.

Yes, you wouldn't necessarily want to "write" the book in iBook Author, you would bring your text in from elsewhere, such as Pages or Word.

As far as the convenience of producing all formats: again, why should Apple be expected to support all the business models of everyone else, especially right off the bat as they introduce this with the new features available for ibooks? They may yet do this in the future, or they may allow developers to create one -- there are videos of Jobs from the old days responding to developers who ask what they can do... "...here's an opportunity, get out there and create the program".

 

[drober30]

I don't understand how they are going to sell the book to "the student"?

Does Apple really expect schools to pass the cost of purchasing text books on to the students or is the school still buying them but registering them to a student?

 

[jlc1978]

My wife has been on a textbook adoption committee in Texas. Its going to take a lot for teachers to adopt a new form of textbook. I think this will be far better suited for college classes (where the professors publish their books with smaller publishers who will now be put out of business).

Actually, this could help small publishers by removing the costs of printing, storing, distributing and remaindering books. They can now focus on content and let Apple do the distribution.

There are two key parts of good writing - an author who knows their stuff and is reasonably literate; and a good editor who can turn what the author wrote into something worth reading.

Small houses can have editors who specialize in areas and know heir stuff - the distribution model don't have any impact on the creative side of the equation. Small houses will now need to add more multi-media talent, which is a cost, but it also opens the door for specialized media shops to work with small houses to create content.

On another level, could this be a disrupter of Amazon? If in 5-10 years Apple has done to the publishing houses what Apple has done to music distribution, what will happen to Amazon and B&N?

Amazon will do fine - it'll continue its march to being a content delivery system that also happens to sell tangible goods; and someone will create a tool to do on other platforms what iBook Author does on the Mac.

B&N is caught between two giants without having their breadth of offerings and may well b e the loser in all of this. the good news is smaller bookstores may profit by specializing in niches and delivering local service to customers. they could even offer eversions through affiliate deals with Amazon and Apple - their strength is in customer service and deep knowledge of a genre; not having everything in one store.

 

[entropys]

I don't understand how they are going to sell the book to "the student"?

Does Apple really expect schools to pass the cost of purchasing text books on to the students or is the school still buying them but registering them to a student?

Some schools will expect the student to pay for the book (eg a private school) others will supply a purchase code that redeems the textbook when you enter it in iTunes (eg most public schools and private schools where the fees include books).

This system has been in place for a while. Many newspapers use purchase codes for free promotions of Apps, music etc.

 

[BobbyRond]

Notice at the end of the video they show two ginger teenage girls out of the eight student faces they show. Redheads make less than 2% of the population. Why??

Because gingers don't have souls?

 

[MuppetGate]

Just saw this quote on DF

Dan Wineman:

Apple, in this EULA, is claiming a right not just to its software, but to its software’s output. It’s akin to Microsoft trying to restrict what people can do with Word documents, or Adobe declaring that if you use Photoshop to export a JPEG, you can’t freely sell it to Getty. As far as I know, in the consumer software industry, this practice is unprecedented.

Microsoft does restrict what you can do with Word documents, depending on which version of Office you buy.

And if you read Smashwords EULA then you can't use their EPUB converter to produce documents for any other service.

 

[andiwm2003]

As long as this new format is not standardized and readable in good quality on a large number of platforms I would not spend a single dollar on those books. The risk that apple changes the standard, drops iBooks altogether (like they do with iWeb or iMovieHD or AppleWorks) is simply too big.

I wouldn't want to be stuck with a library of books that I can't read anymore as soon as I upgrade the OS.

This maybe less of a problem if you buy just textbooks that are needed for one year but this format will soon be used for other types of books that you want to keep forever. In the latter case the format needs to be standardized, open to many platforms and transferable.

 

[ABG]

(Sarcasm alert, don't take this seriously: )
I agree. Europeans should pay their debts first. Don't ever think about iPads.

There's a lot of that about...

USA Today: U.S. debt is now equal to economy

 

[samcraig]

Right now exclusivity of the platform = dealing with the devil.

Publishers and individuals should be able to create content without it having to be exclusive. And if Apple is going to put a stranglehold on their software (which they do have the right to) - their publishing tool won't be as adopted as some 3rd party tool which can be used to create content for all platforms.

I completely get why Apple has their policies. I think there's a potential fatal flaw in it.

 

[jacg]

All I want now is a tweak for this so that I can produce Magazines for the Newstand App, that would be incredibly useful.

Is newsstand an app, or just a special iOS folder for magazine apps?

I agree, this would be really good. Perhaps a feature like this would have taken away from the educational spin but maybe it will come.

 

[alent1234]

Just saw this quote on DF

try to use the x-box dev kit to make games and sell them outside of microsoft

every company that gives you free dev tools has these restrictions. you are always free to spend your own $$$ on your own software

 

[HigherEd]

A point of bookkeeping here. "Sold to students" can mean that the K-12 educational institute sees the cost of the eTextbooks are like all other printed matter that a student uses. This is in contrast to capital assets like chairs and desks which have utility long after the student has moved on. So, the comment you are questioning would be absorbed into the "per student" budget of education and not charged to the student's parents directly...they may pay for it when their property taxes come due, or whatever method the school district gets its funds.

In a college situation, the student is expected to pay for the eBooks or Printed Textbook they need for their classes in addition to tuition and other related costs.

That's not quite what the article says. The article says that these eBooks would be sold "directly to students." Direct sales are direct sales. The article may be mistaken -- but that's what the article says. And if it is right, than all the worries about equity do kick in. Cheaper and quicker production and distribution of books have the potential to improve education; it would be a great pity if the transformation from print to digital technology meant instead that we wasted the opportunity to be more inclusive and more equitable in our education system so that large corporations could improve their already-stellar bottom line.

 

[ChrisTX]

Right now exclusivity of the platform = dealing with the devil.

Publishers and individuals should be able to create content without it having to be exclusive. And if Apple is going to put a stranglehold on their software (which they do have the right to) - their publishing tool won't be as adopted as some 3rd party tool which can be used to create content for all platforms.

I completely get why Apple has their policies. I think there's a potential fatal flaw in it.

The problem is that as of right now, there are no other platforms that have the means to support such textbooks. It would be ridiculous for Apple to set the standard in textbooks, but then allow everyone else(their competitors) to feed off of their content. If Amazon, or the many Google Android OEM'S want textbooks for their devices, then they better get to work! Once again, Apple is leading the way in innovation, while everyone else struggles to keep up!

 

[rnizlek]

That's not quite what the article says. The article says that these eBooks would be sold "directly to students." Direct sales are direct sales. The article may be mistaken -- but that's what the article says. And if it is right, than all the worries about equity do kick in. Cheaper and quicker production and distribution of books have the potential to improve education; it would be a great pity if the transformation from print to digital technology meant instead that we wasted the opportunity to be more inclusive and more equitable in our education system so that large corporations could improve their already-stellar bottom line.

Well, a school district could provide an iTunes voucher for the cost of the books, which the student would then directly download. I'd be shocked if Apple was trying to shift the burden of textbook costs to public school students.

 

[samcraig]

The problem is that as of right now, there are no other platforms that have the means to support such textbooks. It would be ridiculous for Apple to set the standard in textbooks, but then allow everyone else(their competitors) to feed off of their content. If Amazon, or the many Google Android OEM'S want textbooks for their devices, then they better get to work! Once again, Apple is leading the way in innovation, while everyone else struggles to keep up!

I disagree. There's no struggling on this front because quite frankly - yesterday's announcement was mostly marketing. At the end of the day - it's about content. And right now - schools and students being able to take advantage of this "innovation" is YEARS away because no school/student is going to be able to ditch all of their books and be exclusive on the iPad (or any other device) until ALL (or at least most) of their subjects are available. That's going to take a decent chunk of time. This is a baby step.

To further - at the heart of it - yesterday's press conference was really about one thing and one thing only. Apple has improved their publishing tool. That's it. I'm not trying to downplay it (I know it sounds like I am) and I am definitely simplifying it. But really - that's what was announced. A better tool for publishing. And yes - there is buy in from some of the major textbook creators.

The content actually needs to be created to have any value.
School districts need to figure out budgets, plans for implementation, etc

Among many other things.

Again - baby steps. Innovative - ok. Evolutionary - definitely.

But competition isn't "struggling" on this one. It's WAY too early to even suggest that.

And I also stand by my original statement. That some 3rd party (or even Amazon) company that makes something similar (even if it's only 70-80% as good) but allows for the books to be cross-platform will be more likely to succeed.

 

[Bubba Satori]

If the entire world is moving to iPads and Macs what is the problem with exclusivity? Get with the program, ditch your Windoze and learn to be magical.

You are a special and magical person.

 

[legacyb4]

Dropbox the .iBook file or make it available on the web (or even through your own Mac, for that matter).

File size, in this day and age, really shouldn't be an issue more either.

The worst Thing is that there is no easy way to share it with your friends.
I would love to create fun interactive documents and share them to the iOS Devices of my friends..

I created a free book yesterday but think they wont aprove a textbook with 2 lines and someone screaming mooaaar beeeer into a mic
I just want to share it with the iPhones of my friends without the Book-"Store".. the crap I could create is far away from "store-status"

 

[samcraig]

Well, a school district could provide an iTunes voucher for the cost of the books, which the student would then directly download. I'd be shocked if Apple was trying to shift the burden of textbook costs to public school students.

I don't think Apple cares who pays for it because Apple is a business. Do people really think this is about Apple being altruistic? At the end of the day - this is about selling iPads and content. It's another revenue stream.

Remember - Apple answers to stockholders; Schools answer to tax payers.

 

[Kaibelf]

Right now exclusivity of the platform = dealing with the devil.

Publishers and individuals should be able to create content without it having to be exclusive. And if Apple is going to put a stranglehold on their software (which they do have the right to) - their publishing tool won't be as adopted as some 3rd party tool which can be used to create content for all platforms.

I completely get why Apple has their policies. I think there's a potential fatal flaw in it.

Want it to be nonexclusive? Export to PDF. Want it to have all the bells and whistles, animations AND a platform-agnostic experience for interactivity? Don't expect Apple to subsidize FREE software to allow you to create such things. Go to Adobe, spend hundreds of dollars of your money on their products, and then sell your wares elsewhere.

 

[bdavis89]

The problem people have is the fact that apple doesn't care about the rest of the industry. They have shown time after time they have it out for everyone else.

Rather than create an industry standard, license and spread it and use it to dominate, they create their own standard, albeit first, but refuse to let anyone else use it.

You can see this in Windows vs Apple, USB vs Firewire, iOS vs Android. Now it will be their interactive format vs whatever the rest of the industry comes up with. Apple is great, but they will end up losing the marketshare and content war. I know Apple doesn't care, but thats just the way it has been in the past (see above examples). That is why people are disappointed in Apple once again creating another closed garden.