Apple making last-minute tablet content deals for trade, education books
Just days before Apple is expected to introduce its multimedia touchscreen tablet, the company is said to be in negotiations with a variety of companies for content. The latest alleged participants: educational publisher McGraw-Hill and trade book publisher Hachette Book Group.
Citing people familiar with the negotiations, BusinessWeek said that McGraw Hill officials are currently discussing how their software developers and Apple's can collaborate to create dynamic e-books. One source was quoted as saying the talks are just as focused on marketing as they are on software development.
The negotiations with McGraw Hill are seen as an attempt by Apple to keep a prominent role in the U.S. education system. BusinessWeek cited research firm Gartner, which claims Apple held 28.3 percent of the U.S. educational market in the third quarter of 2009. While the institutional market struggled last year, Apple spent $390,000 in one quarter alone, partially to support funding for education.
Word of McGraw Hill's alleged negotiations first surfaced last September. The company has reportedly been in talks with Apple about the tablet for the last year, but this week's report would suggest those discussions are still ongoing.
In fact, recent reports have claimed a number of last-minute deals are being discussed. Thursday, it was said that U.S. wireless carriers Verizon and AT&T are having discussions with Apple about providing 3G connectivity for the tablet.
In addition, it was alleged earlier this week that a consortium of key book publishers are participating in "secret" negotiations with Apple. It was said that "most likely all" of the six largest trade publishers in the U.S. are in talks to bring content to the unannounced device.
Also said to be engaged in discussion was publisher HarperCollins. The company may offer enhanced e-books that include video, author interviews and social networking applications. The releases would likely cost more than the standard $9.99 for current e-books.
Citing people familiar with the negotiations, BusinessWeek said that McGraw Hill officials are currently discussing how their software developers and Apple's can collaborate to create dynamic e-books. One source was quoted as saying the talks are just as focused on marketing as they are on software development.
The negotiations with McGraw Hill are seen as an attempt by Apple to keep a prominent role in the U.S. education system. BusinessWeek cited research firm Gartner, which claims Apple held 28.3 percent of the U.S. educational market in the third quarter of 2009. While the institutional market struggled last year, Apple spent $390,000 in one quarter alone, partially to support funding for education.
Word of McGraw Hill's alleged negotiations first surfaced last September. The company has reportedly been in talks with Apple about the tablet for the last year, but this week's report would suggest those discussions are still ongoing.
In fact, recent reports have claimed a number of last-minute deals are being discussed. Thursday, it was said that U.S. wireless carriers Verizon and AT&T are having discussions with Apple about providing 3G connectivity for the tablet.
In addition, it was alleged earlier this week that a consortium of key book publishers are participating in "secret" negotiations with Apple. It was said that "most likely all" of the six largest trade publishers in the U.S. are in talks to bring content to the unannounced device.
Also said to be engaged in discussion was publisher HarperCollins. The company may offer enhanced e-books that include video, author interviews and social networking applications. The releases would likely cost more than the standard $9.99 for current e-books.
Comments
The company may offer enhanced e-books that include video, author interviews and social networking applications. The releases would likely cost more than the standard $9.99 for current e-books.
Says who?
If this is true. This will be big.
Best response yet
Folks you call roll-up a magazine, newspaper and put it into your pocket.
Newspaper makes a great base for the bird cage.
Newspapers is great in the woods, for toilet paper.
Paper is good for shipping shirt.
I for one, wonder how the folks who build "Bookcases" are feeling about this new toy from Apple.
I guess with real estate getting harder to come by (somewhere, not here), ablets might be a great way to shrink libraries down in size.
It's a safe bet, no one will be leaving the wall street journal behind on airplanes anymore. And what about magazine racks, and all those vendors on the streets of NY selling newspapers, books, and such. they must be getting ready for a Class Action lawsuit against Apple.
The way the ablet is going to go, is to replace BIG, bulky desktop units, but with a ton of new features making it more practical to consider over a desktop or laptop unit.
A lot of folks are doing the audio book thing, because they get to do two things at once, cook while they listen, sew, knit, quilt, drive while listening. Going back to having to read a book, magazine, newspaper doesn't make to much sense to me, but hey, that's just me
Skip
Hope I'm right. Go AAPL!
Later -Steve
For Penny Arcade to touch a topic not really gaming-related, boy...
It's gonna be BIG?
Have you ever seen kids walking to school these days? They're hunched over carrying these backpacks full of books?can't be good for the spine.
In many parts of the world they've got them airline-travel type luggage with the pull-up handle and wheels. A bit smaller, but scary nonetheless.
10 inches to revolutionize education globally. If anyone can do it, it has to be Apple.
BTW McGraw-Hill would be HUGE. They were a fine purveyor of collegiate high-falutin' material I had to digest back when I went to them higher learning places. Arr, ya whipper snappers with ya darn Tablettes and Internets...
The only problem I can forsee is when it comes to textbooks. College textbooks are retarded expensive because those publishers know that the students have to buy the books their teachers request them to buy. So they have a locked in market. Making a digital version will only result in college students "copying" digital books. Who is going to spend $90 on a physical textbook when they can download a digital version of it free from certain "websites" and view it and make notes in it on their iSlate? In order for the publishers to stay in business they'll have to significantly drop the prices of their digital versions. $10-15 sounds about right. So this is a very good idea in my opinion, just not sure the publisher are going to think so. Maybe that is why Apple is still in talks with them this many months later.
Please McGraw-Hill, PLEASE put all your books into an Ebook format so i can pirate new ones for free for reparations for the thousands of dollars i spend in textbooks a semester only to have them not be accepted for trade-in cause they are using a new edition.
Says who?
I clicked the link and surprise surprise, it's: "a person familiar with the situation"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...145509872.html
Brian Murray, the chief executive of HarperCollins, said in December that e-books enhanced with video, author interviews and social-networking applications could command higher retail prices for publishers than current e-books. Many of the country's largest publishing houses are worried about the sale of new bestsellers for only $9.99 in the e-book format. New releases of enhanced e-books could sell for $14.99 to $19.99, a person familiar with the situation said. HarperCollins is a unit of News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal.
Cheers,
Phil
MAN, the Tech World and before that, CES, is going totally bananas on this Tablet thing.
It was kind of funny to see so many tablets emerging despite that tablet being around for about a decade now. All trying to get a leg up on device that may or may not exist.
The only problem I can forsee is when it comes to textbooks. College textbooks are retarded expensive because those publishers know that the students have to buy the books their teachers request them to buy. So they have a locked in market. Making a digital version will only result in college students "copying" digital books. Who is going to spend $90 on a physical textbook when they can download a digital version of it free from certain "websites" and view it and make notes in it on their iSlate? In order for the publishers to stay in business they'll have to significantly drop the prices of their digital versions. $10-15 sounds about right. So this is a very good idea in my opinion, just not sure the publisher are going to think so. Maybe that is why Apple is still in talks with them this many months later.
There is certainly some concern with that. I don?t think Apple?s FairPlay DRM for videos has been cracked. But that isn?t the biggest issue. If I can copy and paste the text or it comes through as plain text as some point it wouldn?t be too hard to grab all the content with a script, especially if they are going to use the iTunes LP and Extra system which is completely open-source, expect for the protected files within. I have to expect that will be addressed.
Then there needs to be rich annotations for textbooks to make it an alternative option to physical books. If I can?t highlight, underline, strikethrough, change colour, make notes on a page, and even change the text then I don?t think I?d want this over a real textbook.
While the institutional market struggled last year, Apple spent $390,000 in one quarter alone, partially to support funding for education.
This should be changed to "Apple spent $390,000 lobbying the U.S. government on stimulus and education funding "
As is, it sounds like Apple spent only $390K supporting schools.
I believe the App Store and all the negotiations for media content will be the prelude to a new business model that Apple will intro with the new device.
I am hoping this tablet will actually allow users such as myself to get some real work done, rather than simply being a dedicated device outlet to sell me media.
Anything is possible, but I know that I WILL not be using a tablet to read anything, unless of course, Apple makes it mandatory that ALL print matter, not be "Print Matter", but ablet matter.
Folks you call roll-up a magazine, newspaper and put it into your pocket.
Newspaper makes a great base for the bird cage.
Newspapers is great in the woods, for toilet paper.
Newspapers are also incredibly non-Green.
Yes, newsprint can be recycled - but an annual paper subscription takes hundreds of trees to produce and each paper is often only read once. Add in the cost of fuel to deliver the papers and the electricity to print them... e-paper and e-books are a much better solution.
Oh, I love my audiobooks for fiction. Tech books which may require code samples or have charts in them (as well as going out of relevance quickly) are more suited to e-book form.
Have you ever seen kids walking to school these days? They're hunched over carrying these backpacks full of books?can't be good for the spine.
So.. in exchange of hurting their eyes..