14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is holding its special media event focused on education today at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, at 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 Pacific.
The company is expected to put Internet Software Chief, Eddy Cue up on stage to talk about new versions of iBooks and textbook rentals, as well as Roger Rosner, the company’s vice president of development for iWork, to discuss an updated version of Pages, and other stuff.
Apple’s foray into the textbook industry has been rumored for quite a while. The rumor mill has been supported by Walter Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs which, at one point, reveals that the late visionary had the textbook revolution all planned out.
Jobs is known to have discussed with major publishers and writers to create educational content that could be updated on a regular basis via iPad. From the biography:
In fact Jobs had his sights set on textbooks as the next business he wanted to transform. He believed it was an $8 billion a year industry ripe for digital destruction. He was also struck by the fact that many schools, for security reasons, don’t have lockers, so kids have to lug a heavy backpack around. “The iPad would solve that,” he said. His idea was to hire great textbook writers to create digital versions, and make them a feature of the iPad.
In addition, he held meetings with the major publishers, such as Pearson Education, about partnering with Apple. “The process by which states certify textbooks is corrupt,” he said. “But if we can make the textbooks free, and they come with the iPad, then they don’t have to be certified. The crappy economy at the state level will last for a decade, and we can give them an opportunity to circumvent that whole process and save money.”
A software platform tailored for the creation of such content may also be announced today, sources say.
Come back shortly for our coverage of the announcements planned by Apple for today.