Apple's entry into the electronic textbook industry is being viewed by Indian electronic textbook creators with a certain amount of reserve. While they believe that the move from Apple could revolutionise the education segment, they have raised doubts about its effectiveness, given the low user base of Apple products in India.

One problem is that it can only be read on an iOS device from Apple. Mr Soumya Banerjee, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Attano, a company that makes e-books priced around Rs 25 for various platforms like iOS, Android and the PC said that this would be limiting. “Apple iBooks can be read only on iPads and the Mac.” He said that he wanted to reach out to the masses, and he is able to do this thanks to Android. “Project Aakash runs on Android, eBooks from Attano will also work on Project Aakash,” he said, referring to the sub-Rs 5,000 tablet. He added that though there was a huge market in the US, he was concentrating on India, which today has around 50 per cent of the population below the age of 25, a segment that Apple may not be able to properly address.

Last week, Apple announced iBooks 2, the upgrade to its book reading application. At the same time, it also launched iBooks Author, a 136 MB free program available exclusively on the Mac. Using this tool, textbook creators and authors can create e-books that can be read on the iPad.

But Mr Rohith Bhat, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Robosoft Technologies, a company that builds e-books for content providers and works with educational companies that design courseware, took a different view and said that the software would, apart from helping textbook creators, also help budding authors who are finding it difficult to get a publisher. “Apple will popularise this space by being a part of it. It has made book publishing easier. You no longer need to go to a professional to get a book published.”

While he has not yet got any orders for text books, Mr Rohit Singal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sourcebits, was happy with the announcement. When asked about the high cost of the iPad, he said, “In the medical field, sometimes students have to spend anywhere from $100 to $200 on a single text book. Compared to this, the iPad is a one-time investment of around $500 to $700.”

However, here is another catch. Apple's end user licence agreement, which states that if you charge for your book, you may only distribute it through Apple. This means that if your book becomes popular, you can't publish it like a traditional book, or offer it on competing platforms like Android or the Kindle. This drew a comment from Mr sFrank X Shaw, Lead Corporate Communications for Microsoft, who tweeted, “If you write a novel in Word, we promise not to take a 30 per cent cut.”

>balaji.n@thehindu.co.in

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