I don't think these digital textbooks will take off on a closed platform. The iBooks format is based on ePub so I think there's every chance you'll see these books reaching other devices over time.
Don't be so sure, the tablet market is still totally dominated by the iPad, and the education-angle for tablets is all but completely Apple.
Now, with all the major textbook publishers behind them, they're moving FAST into education.
How long until another platform even has a large enough install base and education push to be competitive? And that competitor will have to get the publishers behind them too, and then that system would have to get bigger than the Apple system...
I don't see it, I think Apple is already years ahead of their competition -- most notably because there is no competition for this.
Now the competitors have to -start- entering this market, ---start- making competing products, start building those relationships with authors and publishers...
It'll be an uphill battle and really only Amazon today seems to have any chance at all, and they've not really expressed too much interest in the market yet.
Now, with all the major textbook publishers behind them, they're moving FAST into education.
How long until another platform even has a large enough install base and education push to be competitive? And that competitor will have to get the publishers behind them too, and then that system would have to get bigger than the Apple system...
I don't see it, I think Apple is already years ahead of their competition -- most notably because there is no competition for this.
Now the competitors have to -start- entering this market, ---start- making competing products, start building those relationships with authors and publishers...
It'll be an uphill battle and really only Amazon today seems to have any chance at all, and they've not really expressed too much interest in the market yet.