US technology giants, Apple, hope to adopt web standards to build its technology for iPad, similar to the software developed for its line up of Mac OS X Dashboard. The California-based company intends to enable web developers to create widgets built from HTML, CSS and JavaScript that users can install directly to the device rather than it having to be programmed through Cocoa.
Apple currently use its native software which is only available through the app store, and whilst there is a comprehensive catalogue of over 140,000 apps available, Apple are not able to offer its customers an alternative option to transfer these functional mini-apps to iOS, outside of embedding them in a native app using Xcode.
Although native apps offers Apple some advantages which gives them the edge in marketing, it takes special programming skills to develop the apps and restricts Apple users to what is on offer inside the app store rather than giving consumers the option of the alternatives that are available elsewhere on the net. Web apps on the other hand can run on any mobile device. The downside for the company is they lack a good business model and are harder to monetize, but does give the customer more freedom of choice.
Given Apple are the leaders in technology and produce the most innovative and popular handheld devices, news of this latest track of development will come as music to the ears of consumers, but a deafening death-charge to many of its competitors.
The experiment is likely to start with the latest software release, iBooks Author which allows Apple owners to download novels, and iBooks 2 which has been designed as an easy-to-use interactive learning tool for students and will be available for the iPad later this year.
With iBooks Author, Apple is attempting to create a functional market for digital content for the iPad, much like it did with music for iPods and mobile software for the iPhone. Apple´s design for iBooks is based on a web-format that can be adopted as a self-contained website which gives users direct access to iTunes Extra together with other general purpose web apps.
The move with iBooks Author is potentially a decision made by Apple Executives following the recent criticism that the old media is disappointing. A collaborative online academic resource centre compared conventional textbooks with the initial iBooks selection and determined that the interactive features were virtually non-existence and that iBooks was “akin to reading a PDF copy of the printed textbook.”
The researcher went on to say, “Provided with the opportunity and tools to create a ground-breaking learning experience for students, the established textbook companies took an easy route. Given first dibs at a new, revolutionary platform, they chose to push the same stale content.”
The results questioned whether Apple´s new technology was “enough to shake up the textbook market,” and concluded that “the most exciting piece of Apple’s announcement this past week revolves around the ability for anyone to author a textbook…New authors could easily exceed the publishers’ low standards.”
Individual reviews of the textbooks available in the iBookstore also conveyed similar disappointment that the software did nothing to offer an interactive experience or making learning more engaging. In Apple´s defence the iBooks that are currently available have been created by authors who are attuned to creating books, rather than programmers who understand the technology to make the software more engaging.
With developers banging on Apple´s door begging to let them make cool software, the negative feedback gives programmers a prime opportunity to make education more dynamic, innovative and effective the conventional methods.
Not only that but it is possible to illustrate novels in a way that can inspire readers to picture a scene without needing to use their imaginations to much in which case they can concentrate more on the story and the dialogue without having to flick back through pages to pick up on what they missed.
However, the company’s initial focus is on producing textbooks for high schools and colleges in order to improve the level of education the next generation leave school with. As the education system is dumbing down, Apple are turning to technology in the hope it will inspire students to take more interest – an irony given that it is technology in the form of computer games and chatting with friends that distracts kids from their school work in the first place.
Having gained a foothold in the development of a future technology however, Apple appears poised to revolutionize how interactive publishing is done and avid readers can expect to find illustrated novels much like a children´s book or even a comic. Together with web-based technology, Apple could dominate the entire market for handheld devices and re-shape the way technology inspires us in the future.
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