Apple's Push for iTextbooks

Apple made several big announcements in connection with the recent CES, aimed at developing a low-cost digital textbook market in support of its iBooks marketplace and its iPad and laptop hardware.

• the free iBooks 2 application is updated to integrate interactive textbooks, which can include video, audio, pictures, and motion graphics designed to take advantage of the iPad's touch interface.  There is also the potential to highlight or take notes on the interactive text (which automatically convert to study cards), and to work through included problems and examples.
• Apple's working with large textbook publishers to offer titles through the iBooks store, with most priced under $15.  This could make them more affordable, and more portable, alternative to traditional printed textbooks.  So far, the available texts suggest a focus on K-12 texts for now.
• Apple introduced iBooks Author, a self-publishing tool for Mac users, aimed at non-commercial and educational uses (the license agreement makes commercial applications more complex and messy).  iBooks Author uses a "drag and drop" (or cut-and-paste for us older folks) approach, offering several templates and widgets to help develop more of a interactive feel.

During the announcement, Apple also mentioned it's current iTunes U app, with its substantial library of educational materials and apps.
  The mix of materials and applications may provide Apple with a bit of a competitive advantage over Amazon's Kindle and its offerings.  Amazon, though, handles both physical and eBook textbooks, and offers both new and used versions, as well as rentals.  Until the Kindle Fire, though, interactivity was limited.  Amazon also offers authoring software, although theirs is not optimized for educational and noncommercial uses.  Also, the Kindle textbook offerings seem targeted towards college and graduate school offerings, where even at a 30-60% discount, textbooks remain pricey.
  What will be interesting is to see to what extent the potential of eBooks can enter the academic mindset, allowing scholars to make their work (in terms of both texts and research results) more widely available to the global market.

Source - Apple tackles textbooks with iBooks 2 for iPad,  FierceMobileContent