Publishing

Taking on Apple with industrial-strength e-textbooks

The flaws in Apple's plan to reinvent textbooks become apparent when you see Inkling's

One of the things the tech press missed last month when Apple (AAPL) summoned them -- satellite trucks and all -- to Manhattan's Guggenheim Museum for the unveiling of its new textbook authoring tools, is that Inkling got there first.

Launched two years ago by a former Apple educational marketing manager named Matt MacInnis, Inkling had already published MORE

Apple's iTextbooks: 3 days, 8 titles, 350,000-plus downloads

An impressive start, but how many of those 350,000 downloads were freebies? 

Apple (AAPL) certainly got the attention of educators and the educational publishing community with the iPad textbook initiative it announced last Thursday. And no wonder. It's been a long time since anybody lavished that kind of attention and glitz on what has traditionally been an unglamorous -- albeit highly profitable -- corner of the book industry.

The first measure of MORE

Barnes & Noble: eBooks will pass print -- fast

The book industry thinks its digital transformation is happening even faster than it did with music and movies.

At the GigaOm Big Data conference in New York City this week, Barnes & Noble (BKS) executive Marc Parrish took the stage to discuss rapid changes in the book publishing industry.

"The book business is changing more radically now, and quicker, than movies or music or newspapers have, because we're doing it in a MORE

A German newspaper gives Google's One Pass a shot

Google's model of making a few bucks per article may make the most sense in the long run.

Focus Online, the third largest German publisher, is Beta-testing Google's (GOOG) publishing system, according to the Guardian.  The One Pass system is a web-based tool for publishers who want to charge micro-payments for content rather than use a subscription service.  Each piece of content is paid for through Google's Checkout system and for the trouble, MORE

Steve Jobs to pubs: Our way or highway

The subscription model Apple announced today is unlikely to please anyone

There was a rumor in the Time Life building last week that Apple (AAPL) -- which had been in a stand-off with the publishing industry for nearly a year -- had "blinked" and was about to cut a deal favorable to the publishers.

It was not to be. When Apple announced its new App Store subscription service Tuesday morning, it was MORE

Why universities should hate the iPad

by John Patrick Pullen, contributor

If students embrace textbooks on the iPad, college bookstores may lose their shirts.

It may be the season for graduation parties and commencement speeches, but colleges and universities are already prepping for next year, even in the bookstore. Next fall, during opening weekend, students will once again file into university bookstores to purchase course materials, school supplies, and a college sweatshirt or two.

While the university licensed MORE

Apple tablet set for spring launch?

Production is starting and should hit mass-market stride in February, says an analyst

"The manufacturing cogs for the tablet are creaking into action," writes Oppenheimer's Yair Reiner in a note to clients issued Wednesday morning.

According to his supply chain sources, Apple (AAPL) appears to be gearing up to build as many as 1 million tablet computers per month. Assuming the company would need 5 or 6 weeks of inventory before going MORE