Apple made several announcements yesterday which can drive the textbook’s digital transformation — or, in Steve Jobs’ more colourful phrase, its “digital destruction”. My pick is that this will  be the tipping point for educational publishing, its ‘iPod moment’ or ‘Kindle moment’ when the market suddenly takes off. But Apple’s moves will go much further [...]

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When Apple took its heavy-handed action against retailers last month, stopping them selling from within iPad and iPhone apps, those retailers were inevitably going to search for ways to avoid this happening in future. Any business would want to know that its very existence wasn’t subject to the changing whims of Apple management. It turns [...]

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When the mightiest online retailer in the world, Amazon, has to bow to Apple’s demands and cut ties to its ebookstore in the Kindle app, we know we’re facing a big problem. Retailers have lost an important battle to stop Apple turning its hardware dominance into control over content sales. It’s now time for publishers to [...]

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I went to update the Kobo app on my iPad this morning but stopped when I saw what has changed. The main reason for the update is to cut access  to the Kobo ebookstore from within the reading app. Instead, you have to fire up a separate browser, go to their store and make the purchase outside the [...]

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Apple has announced the first update to its hugely successful iPad. Billed by most commentators as an incremental rather than major upgrade, it sports dual cameras (front and rear) to support its Facetime video conferencing, a doubling of processor performance, and thinner, lighter construction. Apple has kept the price (US$499 for the WiFi model) and the [...]

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