Apple launches interactive textbooks for iPad

The textbooks, available via the new iBooks 2 app, include animations, diagrams and video. The books will not carry advertising.

The tech giant, which unveiled its new education apps during an event in New York yesterday, has partnered with education publishers including Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to produce interactive textbooks, priced at around $14.99 (£9.69).

Phillip Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said the textbooks provide a "more dynamic, engaging and interactive" way for students to learn.

"Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet."

"With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world," he said.

Apple has also launched iBooks Author app, which enables anyone with a Mac to create and self-publish a range of books, including textbooks, cook books, history books and picture books, and add interactive features to them.

The company has come under fire from some critics, however, as books authored using the new tool can only be sold via Apple digital outlets.

Apple already hosts more than 20,000 educational apps in the App Store and also promotes the use of iPads in classrooms as an educational tool, by connecting to big screens.

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This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk