A Closer Look at iBooks Author, Textbooks and Exclusivity

Kaibelf said:
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.
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Why not? Sure they can do whatever they want. They could license the format.

Why so angry and defensive about my commentary. Yesterdays heart-tugging presentation was all about learning and "think of the children" - Apple must REALLY care about education. Oh wait - you agree - this is BUSINESS. So who cares about accessibility. Let's just make sure Apple makes a tidy profit.

I'm not against Apple making a profit or keeping exclusivity - they have every right. I just don't think that's a winning formula in this market.

And one of the driving forces behind Apple's initiative here is because they had no chance of ever competing with Amazon for books. They tried - but because their iBook format is restrictive (by device) - they will never have the sales that Amazon has where people can choose what device to read on.

So how do they make their iBook format "better" and more profitable? See yesterday's keynote.

I don't begrudge them for it. Smart BUSINESS. I just don't think it's smart education.
 
gibstros said:
Steve Jobs was absolutely right about the textbook process being corrupt. Junkets, parties, free gifts -- those in the teaching industry aren't used to that and it is too easy to succumb to publishers based upon how good they treated you. And as for our State Board of Education... Lord knows we need to get the religious right out of our curriculum. Hopefully, this will help do that.
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We need to get the unions and dept of Ed out of the schools before worrying about the RR.
 
samcraig said:
Why not? Sure they can do whatever they want. They could license the format.

...

I don't begrudge them for it. Smart BUSINESS. I just don't think it's smart education.
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ok, your opinion is duly noted.

Let time be te judge, instead of you being the judge.
 
i.mac said:
ok, your opinion is duly noted.

Let time be te judge, instead of you being the judge.
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Sorry - I thought this was a message board and people were allowed to discuss it. Thanks for noting my opinion. But as for holding judgement - I'm also entitled.
 
samcraig said:
.

...

I completely get why Apple has their policies. I think there's a potential fatal flaw in it.
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This explains why apple is doing so poorly, because there are fatal flaws in their execution... Good grief.

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wonderspark said:
No problem. My roommate has an iPad and no Lion, so it's nice he can be included in the party, too! More people still have 10.6 than 10.7.
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Freaking lion upgrade is $30 dollars, much less that the price of beer than your roommate consumes in a month, or perhaps a week... in the parties that you mention above...
 
i.mac said:
This explains why apple is doing so poorly, because there are fatal flaws in their execution... Good grief.
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Oh please. Apple has failed before. Or their implementations haven't been very successful. iAds lately. And again - iBooks - while doing OK - is certainly not the cash cow Steve had wanted. The numbers speak for themselves.

Your sarcasm is "noted."
 
Winni said:
Not true. People use PCs, Kindles and other eBook readers, too. And you don't see many iPads here in Europe. Most people see it for what it mostly is - a toy for people with too much money in their hands.

I won't touch iOS with a flagpole. A successful eBook format must be supported by Android, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Kindle.

Yes, I live in a different world than you. Imagine that.
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Question is, if you do not like nor use iOS dev or apple products, what in this green world are you doing here in this forum?

You must have a heck of an ego since you seem to indicate that your opinion IS the opinion that we all must have...
 
i.mac said:
Question is, if you do not like nor use iOS dev or apple products, what in this green world are you doing here in this forum?

You must have a heck of an ego since you seem to indicate that your opinion IS the opinion that we all must have...
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Where did he say he didn't like apple products. He said he doesn't like iOS. And your comment about ego is hypocritical.
 
jw2002 said:
This could be the death knell for the college textbook industry -- and deservedly so. When an industry is selling a book for $400 a copy, there is obviously a lot of fat, inefficiency, and corruption in that industry.
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And, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like Math and Science majors have it worse! As a math major, I kept having to pay hundreds for new editions of the same math concepts that have been the SAME for generations. All they do is change the problems to force you to keep buying them. I got an undergrad in 1998 and recently returned for my Masters. I swear the books have almost doubled in price during that time. I hope Apple finally brings these publishers down a peg or two!
 
Mr. Gates said:
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.

Does that make ANY sense at all?

Seems like typical Apple BS and exactly why 90% of developers shy away from Apple in general.
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Alarmist nonsense. Apple restricts you from using the formatted output of iBooks somewhere else. They do not own any of your content and you are free to sell your book as you please. If you choose to rely solely on their tool to create your book, then yes, you may have a bit more work to do to sell it somewhere else.
 
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I have a million dollar idea for this that I’m surprised Apple hasn’t thought of. It would be a Awesome selling point that I think would catch one like facebook.
I’m not sure if I should say anything yet because I need to figure out if there is a way for me to make money on it or something. :confused:
 
Winni said:
Not true. People use PCs, Kindles and other eBook readers, too. And you don't see many iPads here in Europe. Most people see it for what it mostly is - a toy for people with too much money in their hands.

I won't touch iOS with a flagpole. A successful eBook format must be supported by Android, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Kindle.

Yes, I live in a different world than you. Imagine that.
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What tablet do you see more than iPads? I have been to about 80% of the EU in the past year and see iPads everywhere, what I have not seen is a single tablet of any other kind. I do see quite a few ereaders, but the only one even remotely capable of this type of content is the nook color. (Which I actually don't recall ever seeing outside of the US).

What is it with Europeans attempting to claim iOS devices aree not popular there.

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ncaissie said:
I have a million dollar idea for this that I’m surprised Apple hasn’t thought of. It would be a Awesome selling point that I think would catch one like facebook.
I’m not sure if I should say anything yet because I need to figure out if there is a way for me to make money on it or something. :confused:
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Tell me and I will pay you what I think it is worth.

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Ausn said:
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 :cool:
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"
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Email them a PowerPoint.....
 
An author...

As an author myself - and having been a best-selling author signed to a number of publishing houses around the globe, I for one am extremely excited and positive about yesterday's announcement. For me it fulfils my creative dreams of the past several years - whilst I've been waiting for the technology and software to catch up with what I've wanted to achieve for my books/projects. Though yesterday was seemingly all about text books and very educationally focused, it's the wider publishing potential of this that has the more immediate potential. Education is a behemoth that will take time and huge changes in attitude to fully adopt these changes - but individual authors and smaller publishers will already be starting to create and adapt content ready for this new format.

I've personally been signed to some major publishing houses in both the US and the UK and I can say from experience it's a frustrating and slow process, and a process that deliberately excludes you from much of the creation of what is your book, but what feels increasingly like someone else's book as you go along. Yesterday I viewed the presentation and realised that I no longer need a publisher at all and that I can steer my own creative process at every stage, then publish myself and receive a much larger cut of the sale of my product than any publisher will ever be able to offer. But more than this, I will at long last be able to produce the immersive, interactive three dimensional observer driven content that I've dreamt of creating for many years - without having to either pay huge amounts for the software, or having to be a programmer and learn a whole new skill set. For authors like me, yesterday was a huge moment.

On the whole argument about the proprietary nature of the iBooks store and iBooks author - I have no problem at all with what Apple have done. Firstly this is v1.0 of something that will undoubtedly grow and evolve hugely - secondly, let's be honest - the iPad is the only game in town right now as far as tablets are concerned - it's market share and the demographics of who owns them tell all you need to know on this front. Of course it may well change in the future, but until then I for one am delighted to be locked in to a system that is both the best and most popular. Once the completion wakes up and tries to catch up, I'm sure there will be options that become available to enable iBooks interactive feature rich content to be ported across. When my books were published, I was locked in to whatever publishers I'd signed to - in this case Apple is itself the publisher.

This is huge, and the more fellow authors and writers Ive talked with about it over the past day, the more I can see the how much of a potential game changer this really is going to be.
 
I have no doubt in my mind that, for better or worse, this will happen. Only question is time. It is already less expensive for eTextbooks with iPads than to buy paper books.

Let's say there is a high school of 1000 kids (250 per class). 5 Textbooks a year per kid would equate to 20 textbooks needed per-student. $60 (which seemed to be on the low end of high school text book cost based on personal experience) for physical text books is $1,800 per student for all 4 years. 1,800*1,000=$1.8M for text books for all students for all four years.

iPad is $500. 20 text books is $300. Average cost per kid: $800. School cost $0.8M.

That saves a million dollars (assuming replace all text books after 4 years). Even if you kept all the physical textbooks for 8 years, you would still save ~$100,000. I believe these numbers even mean the kid can even keep the iPad after he leaves and the school would still save money. This also assumes full price iPad and full price for all downloaded books, no education discount whatsoever.

Because of this, I see this being the main type of textbook in the next 5-10 years. (Obviously not all will be iPads, but I had to use SOMETHING to use as an example)
 
$75? What?! I've never seen or heard of any text books that cost more than around £10-£20 (max around $30).
 
baryon said:
$75? What?! I've never seen or heard of any text books that cost more than around £10-£20 (max around $30).
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Then you're either an English major who requires 10 paperbacks per class or you haven't been in college in the past 20 years.
 
Kheraha said:
When my books were published, I was locked in to whatever publishers I'd signed to - in this case Apple is itself the publisher.
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I respect your opinion. But this is not the same thing. There's a difference between being locked into a publisher (and your book being able to be sold wherever - bookstores, coffee houses, online, etc) and only having one channel to be sold. It's not just that they are the publisher. They are also the exclusive channel in which your book can be sold. It's different.
 
Redmond, start your photocopiers

Just a matter of time before the non-innovators jump on the bandwagon to get a piece of a market Apple created.
 
Apple doesn't want ideas from people for legal reasons. Should I submit it anyway? . I love the idea so much I am going out to buy a Mac book pro and an iPad for each of my three children. :eek: (But I want to wait for the new pros and ipad 3s.)

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miles01110 said:
http://www.apple.com/legal/policies/ideas.html
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Thanks, I found and read that.

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I know there is probably no way to make money but I want to share my idea anyway.
 
samcraig said:
I respect your opinion. But this is not the same thing. There's a difference between being locked into a publisher (and your book being able to be sold wherever - bookstores, coffee houses, online, etc) and only having one channel to be sold. It's not just that they are the publisher. They are also the exclusive channel in which your book can be sold. It's different.
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Sort of, but not really. Only the exclusive channel for the book in the iBooks format - not the book itself or it's content - which you can simply reformat and publish elsewhere. Where's the problem? When my publisher publishes a book of mine - for instance I was once published directly by B&N in the US - the also control the channels through which it's available - in my case, B&N didn't make it available via Amazon or indeed any other bookstore. Where's the difference?
 
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