Apple Special Event January 2012

Apple Special Event January 2012

Apple is said to be announcing something on January 19th in New York City. They’ve already invited select media to cover the event, and the only official word is that it’s related to education. Other than that, it’s all rumors and speculation. There’s not much information out there, but there are leaks and little tidbits of information that come out here and there. Let’s take a look at what we do know about the special event, which happens Thursday at the Guggenheim museum.

1) It’s not for a new physical product

Something to keep in mind about the upcoming announcement is that it’s not for a physical product. This means no iPad 3 and no Apple HDTV. Sorry, hopeful people. It’s not going to happen soon, and even if it did, it’s probably not set to happen in New York. That would likely be at Apple’s usual venue at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. That said, count out any sort of major announcement or even teases at future announcements. It’s not going to happen here. It’s smaller-scale. Think along the lines of the announcement for The Daily.

 2) It’s Education-Related

This one was confirmed by Apple’s press invite. It’s an education announcement. Speculation is all over the place here. One of the easiest conclusions to draw is that it’s somehow related to iBook distribution of textbooks. This could make sense, but we haven’t heard as much about this as we’d normally expect. It’s been somewhat talked about but not brought up much after that. We will say that it makes sense, and would be a worthwhile announcement for those who must purchase textbooks, as we all know they aren’t cheap.

 3) They are Working With McGraw-Hill

Apple’s event is has them partnered with McGraw-Hill for something. McGraw-Hill is probably the biggest publisher of textbooks. It’s also reported that Cengage Learning, another major textbook publisher, is attending. If the rumors are correct, this means that Apple is going to unveil some sort of platform for publishing textbooks, and perhaps even distributing, through iBooks for iOS devices.  This would be a very great solution for students as many may actually have iOS devices already and an iPad can actually be fairly inexpensive when compared to a semester’s worth of books.

 4) It’s some sort of simple eBook publishing platform

Other reports say that Apple is planning on revealing a simple platform for publishing eBooks. This makes sense, ArsTechnica actually called it a GarageBand for eBooks. The idea is that it would be as easy to create eBooks for iBooks as it is to create songs in GarageBand. This could be a great platform not only for textbook publishers, but for authors who want to be published but have always looked for a means of doing so. This will make it much easier for them. That is of course if it’s true.

 What do you expect to see?

Right now it’s hard to say. The event is two days away (Thursday, to be exact). We are sure more bits and pieces of information will come around. Still, there isn’t much time left to wait and we’re sure that the announcement won’t be large enough to get huge amounts of attention. It will draw people in, but it’s no iPhone or iPad. Still, we look forward to seeing what comes of it and we will definitely be covering the event as it happens, so stay tuned for that.