Apple's new digital textbook project seems to be off to a flying start, with reportedly 350 000 downloads in the first three days since its launch last Thursday.
According to analyst firm Global Equities Research, 350 000 textbooks were downloaded from the Apple iBook Store over the weekend. Also, according to their data, over the same time, the textbook creator application, iBooks Author, was downloaded 90 000 times.
Global Equities Research uses a proprietary tracking system to monitor downloads. It has been noted, however, that a number of downloads could be attributed to the free copies of “Life on Earth” by EO Wilson.
The analysts say the success of Apple's push into the digital textbook space could be beneficial for a number of players, as the shift to digital textbooks will cut out the supply chain mark-up and printing costs.
The textbook category was added to Apple's iBooks application last week, with two initial offerings from McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, priced at $14.99 or less. The digital textbooks are integrated with the new iTunes U application from Apple.
The iBooks Author application also allows users to create their own e-book or textbook, which can include multimedia such as high-resolution images, videos, 3D model viewing, text highlighting and note taking.
Apple is aiming to make the iPad a key education tool, and claims that over 1.5 million iPads are already being used in schools. The iTunes U app is being targeted at educators, students and publishers alike.
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