DAILYHOSTNEWS, January20, 2012 – Apple is seeking to revolutionize education. On Thursday, the tech giant introduced its new platform iBooks 2, an iPad application that allows users to download and view textbooks on the tablet.
The platform also allows the books to contain moving graphics pertaining to things including diagrams and photos. To make the textbooks available, the company has partnered with top textbook companies Pearson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and McGraw-Hill.
Discussing the matter in a press release, Apple senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller stated, “Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet. With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world.”
“Now with iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love,” Schiller continued.
Apple says the majority of the textbooks will be available for $14.99 or even less expensive.
For those wanting to create textbooks for iBooks 2, Apple is providing content creators with an easy way to do so. The company has launched a free tool called iBooks Author for use on the Macintosh.
