Penguin Books shows off iPad publishing plans
Given the continued dearth of UK-specific information, we’re starting to wonder if the iPad will turn out to be a cruel April Fool’s prank on Apple’ part, but not everyone share our scepticism.
Penguin Books has been showing off some ideas of how it sees the iPad fitting in with its plans for electronic publishing. CEO John Makinson gave a presentation in London earlier this week in which he said: “The iPad represents the first real opportunity to create a paid distribution model that will be attractive to consumers. The psychology of payment on tablets is different to the psychology on a PC.”
The demos showed examples of various children’s books in action on the iPad, though these look more like interactive educational apps than mere digital versions of its paper titles.
Its Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guides look equally impressive — the print editions are already renowned for being excellent visual guides for cities around the world and the iPad versions add interactive elements for such things as creating itineraries and GPS-based mapping.
It’s exciting stuff and shows a level of ingenuity that’s so far been absent from e-publishing platforms and Penguin clearly thinks that the iPad is going to be big news for e-books. let’s just hope we’ll be able to buy one at some point…
[via Paid Content]
