Overreaction to Apple iBook Author

[leebase]

All across the net I see stories declaring doom and gloom over Apple's recent textbook initiatives. Among the initiatives is a free tool Apple has created that greatly assists in the creating of interactive text books for the iPad.

For the iPad being the "OMG, the Horror!" aspect. It's really much ado about nothing. When you submit a manuscript to Amazon's publishing web tool....it creates a kindle book for you. It does not ALSO spit out an epub so that you can publish at Barnes and Noble or Apple.

You don't have to use iBooks Author to create a text book. You can use Adobe In Design (the market leader tool) or even the open source Sigil. You can even use Apple's Pages tool to create epub text books. In fact, all the ways that folks could create ebook versions of textbooks they day before Apple's announcement, are still there. Apple has ADDED to the option of choices, not taken any away.

Prior to iBooks Author and the new ibooks document type (proprietary extension of epub)...you had to create an application...know computer programming or hire it done...in order to create an interactive book like Elements or Alice in Wonderland (two landmark and highly regarded new generation interactive books).

Those apps don't run on anything but iPads...just like windows programs don't run on linux and MacIntosh apps don't run on windows.

These iBook text books are going to only work on iPads. Just like iOS apps only work on iPads (and iPhones and iPod Touches) and Android apps only work on Android tablets and phones. There really is nothing new here....nothing that's taking away from the plethora of options people already had.

But now, Apple has ADDED a nice and relatively easy way for textbook authors to create interactive textbooks without needing to be a programmer or hire a programmer. If one wants to publish such a textbook on the iPad, it's very likely going to be the tool of choice.

If one wants to create the same type of interactive textbook that runs on a Kindle Fire or a Motorola Xoom....they can. If they can program or hire a programmer. Same situation as the day before Apple released their products.

If one wants to forgo the interactive textbook and publish ePub...you still can. It won't work on a kindle because the kindle doesn't support ePub. Same as before Apple released it's latest tools.

If you want to publish an electronic book on multiple different platforms....you have SAME job to do the day after Apple's announcement as they day before. Sounds like a market ripe for someone to write a cross platform solution.

Apple didn't write a cross platform solution, and why is that a bad thing? Apple is in the business of selling iPad's, not making it easier to create products to run on Android. The only thing Apple has done is make it a LOT easier to create really cool text books....and to sell them...on iPad's.

If that makes it difficult for the competition to...you know...compete, well, that's why it's called COMPETITION.

Lee

[pata]

Could you link to some of these stories you are complaining about? I'm pretty sure I've read others that rebut all the points you've raised in defense of Apple. I could even point you to one commentary from a writer assuredly pro-Apple who explains why this move is not just bad for all ebook readers and producers but is bad for Apple itself.

By the way, equating what Apple is doing to what Amazon does isn't a good defence/justification. Just because Amazon is baf doesn't mean Apple should be bad too. Moreover nobody likes what Amazon is doing either and they receive plenty of criticism for it so I'm not sure why you think or expect Apple not to receive similar criticism.

[heySkippy]

I'm overreacting in the opposite direction. I've never written a book, electronic or otherwise, in my life but I spent this entire past weekend in iBook Author and created what I would best describe as an electronic coffee table book with hundreds of pictures and maps and a fair amount of text with beautiful formatting. Now I'm stoked and looking forward to fleshing out the text and other goodies I envision for my book.

In other words, I LOVE it! New toys are the best toys.

[leebase]

There is nothing TO rebut my points. One doesn't need to read external websites to realize that ALL the options for creating text books that existed before the iBooks Author app was released....STILL EXIST!

Apple limits the commercial use of the iBooks Author app to only creating...well...iBooks (hence the name). So what? All the tools that exist to create text books for kindles still exist...so use them. Those same tools still exist for creating text books you can sell in the iBooks store....so use them if you'd like.

You can still code applications instead of using the nice iBooks Author...if you want to. No need for an external source to realize this.

Of course...no app written for the iPad works on anything else...again, self evident. In the same way that Adobe had to write Photoshop for Windows....and then AGAIN for the Mac (or vice versa).

The only thing that has changed...is that folks desiring to target the iPad, have a wonderful new tool...that is FREE...that allows them to create commercial text books with a lot of amazing interactive features...WITHOUT...having to be a programmer.

If you want to create amazing interactive textbooks target to Nooks or the Kindle Fire or the Xoom...or Windows, or the Mac.....well....what's stopping you? The existence of the iBooks Author app hasn't changed your options for creating interactive text books on those platforms.

Will schools actually buy into this? Who knows. But Apple is giving a powerful and easy tool to ENCOURAGE the creation of textbooks that work on the iPad. It's Apple's way of competing for the school's business.

Lee

[leebase]

Originally Posted by pata

Could you link to some of these stories you are complaining about? I'm pretty sure I've read others that rebut all the points you've raised in defense of Apple. I could even point you to one commentary from a writer assuredly pro-Apple who explains why this move is not just bad for all ebook readers and producers but is bad for Apple itself.

Uh....the website you linked to is called: "Hypercritical: A weekly talk show ruminating on exactly what is wrong in the world of Apple and related technologies and businesses. Nothing is so perfect that it can't be complained about."

Not exactly PRO Apple. You should have linked to John Gruber at www.daringfireball.net for an example of a Pro Apple guy who thinks Apple has gone off the deep end on this.

Lee

[pata]

Originally Posted by leebase

Uh....the website you linked to is called: "Hypercritical: A weekly talk show ruminating on exactly what is wrong in the world of Apple and related technologies and businesses. Nothing is so perfect that it can't be complained about."

Not exactly PRO Apple. You should have linked to John Gruber at www.daringfireball.net for an example of a Pro Apple guy who thinks Apple has gone off the deep end on this.

Lee

uh that's John Siracusa (he's been linked too many times by John Gruber, with positive comments, if that's who you get your Apple news from...). He's well known as an Apple fan, writes some of the most widely read reviews of Mac OSX and has publicly admitted that he doesn't own an Xbox because he doesn't like Microsoft! He owns a Mac Pro, iPod Touch and iPad 2. Not sure what else I need to add to justify the pro-Apple tag. I didn't realize that one has to agree with every action by Apple, or not direct any critique their way, to not be expelled from the pro-Apple ranks...

[Penforhire]

Quark Xpress also has EPUB output capability, at least as of version 9. I find their tagging technique clunky but I don't know how it compares to InDesign. Also no significant price advantage unless you're upgrading (which is why I know Xpress but not InDesign, lol).

[CyGuy]

Someone posted the EULA for this new book creator from Apple, it stinks really really badly. It would be like Microsoft claiming rights over any document created in MS Word, or Adobe claiming rights over any document published using Acrobat. It is utter nonsense.

[Namekuseijin]

You know what annoys me most about mobile devices? We ditched a document-centric world in favor of an app-centric world.

Years of effort went by to create and enforce document standards compliance among major vendors, where all you needed to open a document was to click on the document and either have it handled by the standard app for it or select from a list of choices an app implementing the standard. HTML5, PDF, many xml-based formats all come from such efforts.

Major monopolists such as Apple and Microsoft didn't like it and are now actively pushing instead for an app-centric world, each app implementing its own proprietary formats.

All one really needs in the near future is html5 and a compliant web-browser, be it for video, audio or book consumption, all in one.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by CyGuy

Someone posted the EULA for this new book creator from Apple, it stinks really really badly. It would be like Microsoft claiming rights over any document created in MS Word, or Adobe claiming rights over any document published using Acrobat. It is utter nonsense.

It's a free app. It's the "iBooks" Author...used for creating richly interactive text books for iPads.

If you create software with Microsoft Visual Basic...the apps don't work on the Mac or on Linux...only on Windows.

If you create a website using Adobe Flash...it only works (if at all)...using Adobe's proprietary pluggin.

If you write an app in Java....it won't run unless it's on a machine that has the java jdk installed.

It's not all that unusual. And if the EULA is unacceptable, then simply don't use the product. Just build your highly interactive textbooks other ways.

Lee

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

Major monopolists such as Apple and Microsoft didn't like it and are now actively pushing instead for an app-centric world, each app implementing its own proprietary formats.

I must respectfully disagree. Windows and MacOS are both almost entirely document-centric. In Windows, if someone e-mails you an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document, you don't have to worry about what application to use to run it - you just open the document and the o/s decides what to open it with.

[leebase]

That "just open the excel document" isn't what you guys are cracking it up to be. It's taken YEARS for competitors to come up with halfway decent abilities to work with Msft's office formats. And none of them are perfect...particularly with excel.

Like the new interactive iBook Textbooks, excel documents have a lot of programming in them. You can't just open an excel spreadsheet in any old app and have it support all of excels coding and extensions.

Lee

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by leebase

That "just open the excel document" isn't what you guys are cracking it up to be. It's taken YEARS for competitors to come up with halfway decent abilities to work with Msft's office formats. And none of them are perfect...particularly with excel.

Like the new interactive iBook Textbooks, excel documents have a lot of programming in them. You can't just open an excel spreadsheet in any old app and have it support all of excels coding and extensions.

Lee

No, I agree - you use Excel. Microsoft virtually give away Word and Excel in OEM versions with new PCs, student editions, etc, and I believe that they are similarly ubiquitous on the Mac.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, I agree - you use Excel. Microsoft virtually give away Word and Excel in OEM versions with new PCs, student editions, etc, and I believe that they are similarly ubiquitous on the Mac.

There is no Excel for linux, unix, iPad or Android.

And even the student copy of Office is not free.

Only the monopoly status of Microsoft Office has inspired folks to dedicate millions of dollars and years of time reverse engineering what support we do have today.

Microsoft Access? gotta have Access.
Microsoft Publisher? gotta have Publisher.
Visual Basic? works only on windows...as do the apps created.
Sql Server? Windows only.

Far and away the dominant ebook platform is Amazon. Does it support the "industry standard" epub? Nope.

If you want to sell commercial ebooks using ePub....and you want to protect your IP via DRM....the "industry standard" is Adobe ePub.

Is it free? No it is not. It costs the publishers a pretty penny.

Folks...you are expecting WAY MORE of Apple than any other company is delivering.

Apple has spent millions developing the iBook Author app to enable folks to easily create content FOR THE IPAD. That's how Apple makes it's money, selling iPads.

If you make your money selling text books...Apple has a very nice plan to help you make a lot of money by supporting the iPad platform. It will be up to the textbook producers to decide if this "free tool" is worth it to them.

Lee

Originally Posted by leebase

Folks...you are expecting WAY MORE of Apple than any other company is delivering.

Not necessarily. A lot of people are critical of Microsoft's restrictive Office file formats. A lot of people are critical of Adobe's Flash. ePub's DRM may be controlled by Adobe, but they license it out. And even then a lot of people avoid DRMed ePubs.

It's not Apple that people hate. It's Apple's business practices. And yes, we are more than disgruntled when other businesses use the same tactics. It's also worth considering that different people draw the line at different places and we're critical of different businesses because of that. Some people want completely open standards, others are fine with royalty free and non-discriminatory licensing of standards, and a whole bunch of people are okay with royalties of licensed technology. Yet we all agree upon one thing in the end: we don't want to be locked into a particular vendor.