Apple's January Event to Focus on Publishing and eBooks

ibooksA rumored Apple event to be located in New York City later this month was originally reported to be "media-related" and not about an Apple television or iPad update. TechCrunch now reports the event will be focused on publishing and the iBookstore.

According to the source the event will not involve any hardware at and instead will focus on publishing and eBooks (sold through Apple’s iBooks platform) rather than iAds. Attendance also be more publishing industry-oriented than consumer.

One possible topic of the event is an expansion of the iBookstore to sell textbooks. In his biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson said the textbook industry was one Jobs looking to revolutionize with the iPad.

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Top Rated Comments

Tinyluph Avatar
174 months ago
iBooks for Mac?
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lifeinhd Avatar
174 months ago
As a college student, I have to say, unless the pricing is SUPER competitive, as in books are 50% less than I can purchase used, I'm gonna stick with paper. Why? Resale value. Can't resell an e-book too easily, now, can I? :rolleyes:
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Gregintosh Avatar
174 months ago
Hopefully we will be able to read iBooks on our macs now, its kind of ridiculous that you need an iOS device to read a book and that a beautiful 11, 13, 21, or 27 inch screen on a Mac is deemed unworthy of displaying text.

A web-based interface would also be nice if someone decides to use another platform for mobile devices, kind of like Amazon now provides.

Apple needs be as ubiquitous as Amazon in this department to catch up. Otherwise, even Apple fans like me will buy books from Amazon forever.

(I feel safer buying from Amazon Kindle store since I know I can always access/read my Amazon content from anywhere and any device, where as with iBooks I know I'll only be able to read them on my iPad/iPhone).
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DTphonehome Avatar
174 months ago
Makes sense. I wouldn't expect a NY-based event to be anything major. It's not Apple's home turf, but is the publishing capital of the US.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple Knowledge Navigator Avatar
174 months ago




Remember when Apple was nearly bankrupt?

Remember when Apple was a fruit?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HishamAkhtar Avatar
174 months ago
Have you not noticed you have to pay Apple for the pleasure of something to keep these books on?

What happens if the battery dies? You going to ask the lecturer to stop and wait so you can plug in your iPad and wait for it to have enough charge to work?

What happens if the HD goes and you are without the iPad for a few days?

A lecturer will not give you an extension because of something so stupid and easily avoidable.

If a few text books are too heavy for you, maybe you should invest in a gym membership and not an iPad?

Seriously? Your reason for not using eBooks is because of the prospect of the device failing? I think I have enough trust in Apple to know that my iPad won't **** up every time I try to use it. And the battery? Do what people already do when they take their laptops to class and 1) charge it beforehand or 2) bring a charger. Not that difficult.

And you're questioning my strength as the reason why I don't want to carry around books? Have you considered that carrying all my "textbooks" on a small iPad is just more convenient?

Why don't we throw our iPhones away because they might run out of battery the next time we need to make a call...because landlines never run out...
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)