

Isn't Apple's announcement bad for society? - th0ma5

I would think that creating a locked in format that will be incompatible with everything would be the worst thing to do, and that creatives wouldn't stand for it. Graphic and Multimedia designers that I know of are still feeling the effects of Adobe's problems with Flash, why should we support another non-open, non-standard format? Won't we in the future be complaining that we have to find someone who still has an iPad in order to get this material into a usable format?
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gharbad
It's all about the form-factor. That Apple recognizes this and is attempting
to capitalize on it is fully expected.

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vannevar
It's actually all about the DRM. Dynamic textbooks in that form factor could
be done using open standards, but it's Apple's locked in proprietary format
that Apple is selling to textbook publishers.

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jonhendry
I'm sure the publishers are demanding DRM. I doubt Apple cares much, and going
DRM-free would simplify things for Apple.

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vannevar
Apple cares _because_ the publishers care. Apple realizes that the customers
(the students) are locked in to the schools, which are in turn locked in to
the publishers, which are now locked in to Apple.

