A Closer Look at iBooks Author, Textbooks and Exclusivity

[wizard]

There are a number of ways to try to make this cost effective.

@Wizard
Did the math, assuming schools keep iPads for 4 years at a time they still save ~33% the cost of regular text books (estimated price of $60, which I believe to be a low estimate) kept for six years at a time.

One idea I had was that the iPads simply be given to students as Sophmores. This would be with them for three years. Combined with a few free texts it would save some money.

The other option would be to buy iPads and configure them for a specific grade. Then try to get as much like as possible out of them. Say shooting for five years.

This also assumes after the first set of iPads bought (Which is a little less than half the price of completely replacing all the regular textbooks), they change out 1/4 of their iPads every year after.

One of the reasons I like the idea of buying at the Sophmore level and giving the students the device for the next three years is that it solves the change out problem. I'm not sure what to do about the grade school levels, I actually think it is a bad thing to throw to much technology at people of that age.

The only problem I see is the iBook store not having all the books the schools need. Even then, they would still probably save money only having to buy a small percentage of real textbooks.

I suspect core subjects will be taken care of real quickly. Frankly not by the big publishers either. As I have spoken about earlier I really expect more and more states to simply write and publish their own texts. The savings are to enticing for something that is just a repeat of what has been taught for hundreds of years. So basic math, sciences and literature will end up coming from non traditional publishing. Apple is making it easy to accomplish this. Further if states put reasonable efforts into cooperative development of these texts cost will be spread even further.

Going to iPads will require a bit of a mental reset from the standpoint of school management. But if they can step away from the collusion with the publishing houses significant money will be saved.

 

[andiwm2003]

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?

Your points are valid from the author side (both the frustration with publishers as well as the limited concern to be tied to one system).

However from the customer side it's different. If I were to buy these books with this immersive technology then I see this as a longer term investment. I talk about really good textbooks or non fiction books. They can easily cost $150 a piece. And I would not want to be locked into Apples ecosystem with those.

If I decide to switch to Android will I be able to use those books (and it could be hundreds of dollars or more)? Or will Apple be supporting these books and this format in 15 years from now? Can I lend these books to my brother or give them to him as a present in 10 years from now?

For inexpensive consumption this are not important considerations but we have still a number of textbooks, travelguides, non fiction titles as well as classics that we cherish and some of wich I got from relatives 20 years ago.

 

[Padraig]

I'm getting such a weird Encarta vibe of books 2.0.

 

[paul4339]

...

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....

This is not quite correct, since physical books are hand-me-down (re-usable and transferable) you' have to amortize your text books costs over the life-cycle of the text book. So a $75 textbook with a 5-year lifecycle, is costing the school $15 per year per book.

I didn't read the Apple announcement in detail, but when I read "...and students get to keep their copies..." it implies you have get a new copy for each student ... and once again is still, $15 per student/per e-book (co-incidence??)

The difference is in the ebook model, you still have to buy a tablet (iPad), at say $500 amortized over 4 years, is $125 per student per year.

At the end of the day, publishers want a consistent (slowly increasing) revenue stream;
schools need cost containment and increase in student performance.

Things will change in the upcoming years, prices and business model will have to be reconsidered , tablet technology will change, competition may set it.

But, in general, I think we are headed in the right direction.

.

 

[sjwk]

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

(ditto)
Absolutely. And if the US would just like to drop the UK a cheque for the €834bn it owes us, we'll get right on it

Steve.

(And yes, I know the US likewise holds around €500bn of UK debt - although why we don't just all cancel out these debt payments back and forth between countries and simplify things is another matter... Still, got to keep the bankers employed I guess!)

----------

Charging $14.99 or under is a great headline rate, but 30% of that goes to Apple. What about the author and publisher and their massive investment in time and money to get the book written? Some books cost more, because they actually cost more to get written. Apple set an arbitrary rate, which diminishes that process and the value of the content, and allows them to deliver what they see is a great headline purchase price. Content is almost certainly going to suffer to meet that price point. A more comprehensive version will undoubtably end up in another form (print maybe).

Sadly, what I can imagine happening is that rather than someone write one textbook covering an entire year's worth of the subject, it'll get broken down into several volumes, each selling for the $15 mark and covering one term or one module of the course. The author still gets much the same as they would have and the student ends up paying much the same.

Steve.

 

[jmsait19]

it's pretty simple.

apple created a free tool to make books for their service. they didn't create a free tool to make books for a competitor's service.

i'd expect an application like this to cost hundred's of dollars if you were able to use it wherever you like. like the adobe apps.

however, apple makes the apps available at extremely low prices, because it helps further their other business interests.

and that's really it. ibook author is there to further the ibookstore, which is there to further the ipad.

and there is nothing wrong with that. if amazon made a publishing tool to use with amazon's bookstore to only work with the kindle. that's their prerogative. but just because apple's software is the most elegant and exciting, doesn't mean they have to share it.

 

[steveh]

I believe you are correct, however that would remove the interactive element, wouldn't it?

Not necessarily, no. PDF has supported embedded movies and interactive 3D elements for at least a couple of years.

 

[rotarydialz]

It's no surprise that Apple is leading the way. I can imagine the publishers having to make versions of their books available for other tablets in the future. The competition will have to emulate iBooks Author for their tablets. This new take on textbooks is too big of an opportunity to ignore.

 

[wonderspark]

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...

Changing a few characters saved me $30 then, since it was free, and I have iBooks Author running on 10.6.8, which I prefer over Lion. It was amusing to see you chewing on the wrong end of the stick, though.

 

[mytdave]

You forget to include upgrade cost of iPad every year no kids like old toys. iTunes U is great, but iPad brings too much distraction to class room. Apple need to build special version of iPad, cheaper and locked down for class room.

Schools who buy iPads have complete control of them and can lock them down to any level they want (and schools do get special education pricing).

http://images.apple.com/ipad/business/docs/iOS_Security.pdf

 

[HigherEd]

I understand your concerns, but let's look at some things:

1. We (US) don't live in a democracy, we live in a Republic.

...

3. Access to texts now seems more unfettered than before. In the past, you could only get a text from your school, and only the one they want you to have. Schools will probably still require certain texts, but if you want to study something different on your own, it will now be available to you.

4. The entry cost to this system really isn't that high. A single printed textbook (soon to be a thing of the past) is expensive - I've seen textbooks anywhere from $45 - $179. You buy a few of those monsters, and you've already spent as much or more than an iPad.

5. iPads are available via many avenues, including programs that provide technology for underprivileged folks in society. If you haven't noticed, many, many schools are buying iPads for student use. It seems likely that schools who adopt iBooks will be providing the iPad, since they would have been buying printed books anyway.

6. Schools that have purchased laptops or iPads have had really good results as far a breakage/damage is concerned. They've held up really well. Students also tend to treat them better than paper.

I think you're right about much of what you write here -- though I think the notion that the United States is a republic rather than a democracy is casuistry. It is a republic, and it is democratic. We do live in a democracy.

Access to alternative texts has long been a part of education: most schools and most municipalities have libraries which generally provide alternatives and complements to school textbooks.

The entry cost is high if students now are required to pay. You're right that nothing prohibits school districts from supplying all the tools necessary to students. My concern is that we have shifted from a model in which we think education (certainly at the primary and secondary level) as a public good to one that sees it as fee-for-service. Selling directly to students is part of that shift.

My own experience is seeing a school district heavily in technology (electronic white boards and laptops for students), then seeing the district run out of money to maintain and replace the stuff when it broke down or got obsolete. (The same is true for books, of course -- lost books sometimes do not get replaced, and books in the sciences are often outdate. Electronic textbooks should be easier and cheaper to replace.)

Again, I'm not against the idea of better books or better technology. I want to make sure that all of our children have access to an education -- regardless of their parents' ability to pay.

 

[576316]

I seriously do not believe this is going to play out how Apple want it to. At my college, in the UK, you're considered stinking rich if you own an iPad. They're expecting every student to have one?

There's a reason old textbooks are used, BECAUSE THE EDUCATION SYSTEM CANNOT AFFORD ANYTHING ELSE. Or replacements for that matter.

 

[Brometheus]

A lot of the posts here perpetuate the caricature of Apple as some evil, walled garden, locking in, choice denying, controlling corporate behemoth. For those who are making the case for device-agnostic software, think about why this makes no sense for Apple. Apple is first and foremost a hardware company. Every major initiative has to further that aspect of their business model. That simple principle explains the basis for most of Apple's decisions.

 

[smoledman]

A lot of the posts here perpetuate the caricature of Apple as some evil, walled garden, locking in, choice denying, controlling corporate behemoth. For those who are making the case for device-agnostic software, think about why this makes no sense for Apple. Apple is first and foremost a hardware company. Every major initiative has to further that aspect of their business model. That simple principle explains the basis for most of Apple's decisions.

Then let's not pretend that Apple can have it both ways. They can't be uber-profit driven and at the same time say they truly care about the education of ALL children.

 

[Brometheus]

Then let's not pretend that Apple can have it both ways. They can't be uber-profit driven and at the same time say they truly care about the education of ALL children.

It's possible to care about making money and other things, even though profit is your primary objective. I don't have the impression that Apple is claiming that educating the world is their number 1 priority. Apple apparently cares about educating children and will use their business model to promote education.

 

[jasomill]

I love the idea of reducing the cost of textbooks -- but shifting the cost from communities to public school students causes serious equity problems.

There is no reason "who pays" has to change — the keynote specifically mentioned that when schools pay, students will get a redemption code.

Moreover, the "everyone gets an iPad" approach is more equitable than "open" systems. The only real difficulty I see is lost, stolen, and broken iPads — if this takes off, I suspect Apple will offer some sort of "institutional AppleCare+" for the latter case, but book theft can already be an issue, and iPads would certainly be worse.

If the prospect of stolen devices from this initiative leads Apple to assist state and local officials in using "Find My iPad" to recover devices and prosecute thieves, this could net a very nice side benefit for all Apple device owners.

 

[42streetsdown]

Right now I get all my textbooks in PDF files from my college's disability department (and for some reason they don't charge me for them—I've always wondered how they get them so quickly—any book I need—as well as in an unlocked format, but better not to ask questions). They are SO much nicer than digital books directly from publishers which come up with glaring warning dialog boxes if you as much as highlight text to attempt to copy a passage. With PDF, I can search, bookmark, annotate, copy passages, have the Mac read the text out loud to me, and the pages scroll incredibly fast in Preview compared to the publishers' Flash based textbooks (not comparing to these new Apple iBooks, but the ones that have been available for some time direct from the publisher). All that actually makes me wonder if I'd even like the iPad experience of textbooks as much as PDF on a Mac—for example, can it read aloud, and would copying text to insert as a quotation in another document be easy?

Still, I hope Apple expands iBooks to PCs and Macs. At this point, I buy Kindle books because I have a Mac but not a tablet or smartphone, and I read them on my Mac (and Apple doesn't have a Mac reader for its books). If I ever got a smartphone or tablet, including Apple's, I could still read my Kindle books because Kindle is almost everywhere. Maybe Apple is focusing on fit and finish before expanding to other devices, or maybe they really believe an iPhone is a better reading experience than a Mac? I hope it's the former.

If you don't mind me asking, what disability entitles you to these digital copies?

 

[lbmontez]

Back to college I go! Ive always hated carrying around five or six super heavy books at once, plus a laptop. Convenience has won again!

 

[jmsait19]

Then let's not pretend that Apple can have it both ways. They can't be uber-profit driven and at the same time say they truly care about the education of ALL children.

apple initiated a change. they care. but they have a responsibilities to the shareholders, who could care less about anything other than profit margin.

plus, if they want to keep initiating change, as they have with iPod, iPhone, iPad, then they have to make money somewhere, to stay afloat and pay those engineers...

 

[Tinyluph]

The problem is not exclusivity or the proprietary iBooks format. That stuff was all very predictable. The problem is they didn't change the game at all.

Take note of the fact that Apple and all its partnerships focused entirely on K-12. Why? Because that's where the money is for the publishers. To be honest, I will be very surprised if we start seeing college level textbooks in iBooks 2 any time soon.

Unfortunately for Apple, K-12 is a far more difficult market to hit than colleges. There are a lot of problems in the face of getting iPads into K-12 classrooms. We're talking school boards which are very slow to make any sort of large budget changes, and that's assuming they even consider it a worthwhile investment.

As far as I can tell though, it isn't a worthwhile investment for K-12 schools. The only realistic way this happens is if the schools keep the iPads year over year, but unless they're letting students take their iPads home this defeats the whole purpose of textbooks and curriculum.

So to me, this is what it comes down to: a handful of schools give iPads to students. Nothing has changed.

 

[JGowan]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

Any word on whether or not iBooks published with the iBook Author will be compatible with iBooks for iPhone? So far it's sounding like they're iPad only. If so, this is a shame as it further limits the reach of this easy-to-create iBook format.

If you look at the experience, this isn't akin to reading a book on your iPhone/iPod... it is enjoying charts, graphs, slideshows, video, text, 3D models, etc. It needs to be for a reasonably sized screen such as the iPad. Can you take notes (easily) on the iPhone/iPod? No. On the iPad,... absolutely. I'm a pretty typist on mine and with a ZAGG and a bluetooth keyboard... notes all day long.

There needs to be better experience to get the kids to be engaged. To show one another their books on the iPad and the passing of that device back and forth. Trying to do all that the textbooks can on a 3.5" screen is daft in my opinion. Text would be entirely too small... you couldn't read the Index or other small text. Crazy talk, man.

A simple game or even a book? Yes. A multimedia book? Never.

Think of the children!

 

[bsolar]

A lot of the posts here perpetuate the caricature of Apple as some evil, walled garden, locking in, choice denying, controlling corporate behemoth. For those who are making the case for device-agnostic software, think about why this makes no sense for Apple. Apple is first and foremost a hardware company. Every major initiative has to further that aspect of their business model. That simple principle explains the basis for most of Apple's decisions.

It explain the basis of Apple's decision, but this doesn't make these decisions the best for consumers. I don't consider Apple evil, and I consider most of their devices the best choices in the market. In my opinion Apple has no need for these lock-in tactics for the devices themselves, they would sell great the same. They need them because iBooks alone is inferior to other choices.

 

[JGowan]

So to me, this is what it comes down to: a handful of schools give iPads to students. Nothing has changed.

Well -- you're acting like schools are all on the same time table of purchases. Maybe schools A, B and C won't need new books for 5 years, but D, E and F will need them next year. And when they compare the costs of paper textbooks vs. iPads and the cheaper books, who knows where the difference is? I don't know. I haven't shopped for thousands of books lately. Have you?

You're not seeing the bigger picture. USA is behind. These textbooks could not only be a great new tool now, but will be available to the person THEIR WHOLE LIFE. It seems to me that if a publisher makes a great book that is interactive and engaging, the whole family might learn about stuff they never considered. IF a child doesn't have to give the book up at the end of the year, wouldn't be amazing if they continued to study that book ongoing for years simply because it's fun to learn? I think so.

I own a Mac Pro so Apple won't get my desktop money for another 5 years or so. I'm not "in the market". Just the same,... I want Apple to continue to innovate and sell computers to others in the meantime and I'll buy when it's time. Same with schools. Some will say, today is the day! Some will say, we just bought books last year. We'll have to see what things are like in 5 years. Chances are, Apple will not have stood still and in 5 years, the schools that waited will want the iPad books more than ever because the textbooks are THE WAY to educate. By then, the studies will be out and it will clearly show a rapid improvement across the board for those that were taught with the iPad. My 2¢!

=======

It explain the basis of Apple's decision, but this doesn't make these decisions the best for consumers. I don't consider Apple evil, and I consider most of their devices the best choices in the market. In my opinion Apple has no need for these lock-in tactics for the devices themselves, they would sell great the same. They need them because iBooks alone is inferior to other choices.

And those other choices would be...? And why are they superior? C'mon. Make a statement, but make a point, please!

 

[smoledman]

The real issue isn't Apple adding another piece to their "walled garden", but why can't the competition come up with something better? Where is Microsoft on this - aren't they are software company first and foremost? Typical that on everything that's really important to society Apple leads the way and everyone else follows slavishly.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

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".

How about this:

Songs created w/ Garageband or Logic have to be given away free of charge or sold exclusively through iTunes Store
Movies created w/ iMovie or Final Cut have to be given away free of charge or sold exclusively through iTunes Store
Documents created w/ Pages or Textedit or iBook Author have to be given away free of charge or sold exclusively through iTunes Store

and so on