Pluses and Minuses in Apple’s iBooks 2 Textbook Equation

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tdp2664 InvestorPlace Apple ‘s (NASDAQ: AAPL ) announcement this week of the iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U apps may not have garnered the sort of consumer mania that typically comes with the announcement of a new iPhone, but make no mistake: It was a big deal. Research group BookStats and the Association of American Publishers won’t release 2011 sales figures until later in 2012, but studies released last fall reiterated the earning potential of the market. Higher-education textbook sales grew 23% over the past three years, totaling $4.5 billion last year. Is Apple about to add yet another multibillion-dollar revenue stream to its stable? “I can’t say I’m worried,” says at least one publisher in the field. A study conducted last year by social-learning platform Xplana projected that digital textbook sales would total $1.5 billion by 2015. That was, of course, before Apple decided with Pearson (NYSE: PSO ), McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP ), and other publishing heavyweights to take on the market. iBooks 2, released on Thursday, already supports eight interactive iPad textbooks sold through Apple’s iBookstore. Instructors using the iPad in class also have access to iTunes U, a course management app that can be used for structuring classes and assignments. Both are complimented by iBooks Author, an app for corporate, independent, and individual publishers alike, easing the process of creating e-books for Apple’s platforms. Based on Apple’s past success with media initiatives like iTunes, it’s not unreasonable to think that Xplana’s $1.5 billion estimate is low-balling it. Textbook production: not rocket science, but pretty close Will iBooks Author self-published textbooks cut into higher-education sales? A production editor with a prominent independent publisher serving the higher-education market expressed skepticism to InvestorPlace that that would be the case. “Unlike trade, textbooks tend to be insulated from self-publishing due to the sheer number of eyes and minds required to craft an informative, visually attractive book in any field," this editor says. "There’s nothing to stop motivated professors or graduate students from collaborating on a self-published textbook, but if professors and graduate students had the time and motivation required to do so, we wouldn’t be in business in the first place.” The iPad’s infiltration of the classroom does represent a potent opportunity for larger publishers, says the production editor, adding: “In the past decade, the book itself has become less