The iconic silhouette of New York’s skyline coupled with the iconic apple with one bite out of it. That’s the image that announced an Apple press conference slated for next Thursday. The invite reads: “Join us for an education announcement in the Big Apple,” and it’s widely thought to mean that Apple will announce its newest venture into textbooks. From the New York Times:
Talk of such a move by Apple has been bubbling since a biography of Apple’s late chief executive, Steve Jobs, came out in October. In that book by Walter Isaacson, Mr. Jobs told him that he wanted to transform the textbook market by hiring prominent textbook writers to create electronic versions of them for the iPad. Mr. Jobs told the author that he believed Apple could get around state certification processes for textbooks by making them free.
If Apple can get enough publishers to sign up with the program, which would presumably bring textbooks to the iPad, this could help transform more than the minds of today’s youth. Think about their backs. I mean, have you seen those 80 pound kids hauling around 50 pound backpacks?