I apologize if this might sound like a naive question: but why haven't textbooks been published on the internet all these years?
I mean why couldn't some non-profit organization theoretically have created some HTML standard and template for textbooks with the ability to do videos, interactive input, notes...etc other bells and whistles...then hired expert textbook writers, and just cranked out a few online quality textbooks for use in high schools, colleges or whatever. Then all you'd need to consume the content is any kind of HTML reader/browser on any type of computing device.
What has really been preventing this from happening? I just don't get what business Apple has in "reinventing" textbooks or e-book formats or why we had to wait all these years for them to do it (and lock it into their ecosystem).
For high schools, the main cost in production is lobbying the state standards board. For colleges, buying decisions are made by people (professors) who don't have to actually spend the money. There's no advantage to undercutting someone on price.
I don't know. I'm a lot more sure that those are the reasons that nobody's created a bunch of open source textbooks than I am that Apple can somehow break through. I guess there's a chance that the Apple aura is enough of a draw to break through the established system?
I mean why couldn't some non-profit organization theoretically have created some HTML standard and template for textbooks with the ability to do videos, interactive input, notes...etc other bells and whistles...then hired expert textbook writers, and just cranked out a few online quality textbooks for use in high schools, colleges or whatever. Then all you'd need to consume the content is any kind of HTML reader/browser on any type of computing device.
What has really been preventing this from happening? I just don't get what business Apple has in "reinventing" textbooks or e-book formats or why we had to wait all these years for them to do it (and lock it into their ecosystem).