We’re getting more information about Apple’s rumored media event, set to take place later this month. Various sources are saying that the company’s January event will focus on publishing, like previously speculated. But what exactly in the world of publishing? There’s where we are getting a little more specific.
All Things D first reported the event, and Tech Crunch later added their own confirmation, saying that the announcement would take place in New York City and would revolve around the iBooks platform. The announcement was also said to be “minor” in scale.
Fox News’ Clayton Morris is now reporting that his sources have revealed that the announcement will be “small in size but large in scope; a big announcement in a demure space.” He says that he expects two fairly large announcements to occur that deal with Apple’s role in the education space.
MacRumors has received some information that might corroborate reports that Apple is planning on throwing their weight behind digital textbooks.
Adding to the speculation about textbooks perhaps playing a role in the upcoming announcement is information we’ve received from a source indicating that Apple last month filmed a series of short interviews with textbook industry executives. The interviews are said to have been of the type that would be used in one of Apple’s promotional overview videos for a new product or service.
Our source cautions us that there is no direct evidence tying the interviews to the upcoming media event and that Apple frequently films promotional video segments and commercials that never see the light of the day, but the timing of the filming seems to be in line with possible preparations for the media event.
Of course, Steve Jobs biographer and bestselling author Walter Isaacson has said on multiple occasions that Jobs wanted to do something about textbooks – to make them an important feature of the iPad.
The second part of the media event could focus on self-publishing, according to ereader site goodereader.
Apple is going to be holding an exclusive event in New York city later this month to possibly launch a new program for their iBooks and Publishing platform. Sources close to the matter have told us that they intend on launching a new digital self-publishing platform to get peoples content into the iBookstore. This is a huge step forward for Apple to compete with Amazon (DTP) and Barnes and Noble (Pubit).
This program would utilize EPUB 3, the IDPF’s open standard for e-books.
So, part one: Textbooks, and part two: self-publishing. Certainly two announcements that could be seen as small in size but large in scope.
Together, all of these reports give us a look into what Apple could be planning for the end of the month. While this is all still a bunch of speculations from various sources, one thing everyone can agree on is that the event will probably have nothing to do with any new hardware.