Apple joins the e-textbook market with iBooks 2, a reading fullscreen digital textbook app that utilizes video use and animations.

Apple also introduced iBooks Author, a free software application for Mac users that assists authors to create and publish their own digital e-textbooks.

Apple is also updating its iTunes U program by introducing an application for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

These new applications allow professors to create customized online courses, assignments, quizzes, and books manually.

Apple is introducing these applications to K-12 markets and schools for the first time.

Previously, these apps were only available for the higher education market.

Apple hopes that students will enjoy the new e-textbooks and engage in the new tools these e-textbooks provide such as 3-D animated models, glossary definition and even the ability to drag their fingers to highlight a certain passage.

Although apple targets all markets for new textbooks, they are mainly focusing on high school textbooks.

Books are priced at $14.99 or less, a price break from usual textbook purchases.

Associate English Professor Stephen Clifford said that he has never used e-books in class and has only used hard-copy novels and textbooks in class.

This semester he had a particular student who wasn’t able to purchase the textbook at the moment, but with the student’s Kindle, the work was also available for free at amazon.com.

The student was able to download the work for free while gathering the money to purchase the textbook for class. He remembers that as a great experience in class.

“If I had a chance to order a single textbook, and know that all students can get that textbook, and get it on a kindle or an iPad or a similar tablet, I’d be strongly interested in that for the whole class,” Clifford said.

He also comments that this issue is his biggest concern because he doesn’t believe it’s so cost effective, given that the Kindle runs for $150 and the iPad runs for $600 to $700, and if students have to purchase other textbooks for other classes, the price is a lot more money than just purchasing textbooks.

Students weren’t so accepting to this new opportunity, as studies show that students still prefer physical textbooks to e-books.

Felicia Manuel, nursing major, said, “I prefer something in my hand, it’s more accessible and it takes less time than signing on the internet, needing an internet connection and scrolling through the e-pages, I save time with the physical books.

Terrence Bonner, undecided major, said, “I prefer the [paper] book because with the e-book, you have many factors to worry about, such as the battery life of your device, data connections, so with the physical book there are less distractions.”

Since its launch, the iBooks author app has been downloaded 90,000 times and According to Global Equities Research, Apple reports that $350,000 worth of high school textbooks have been sold in its iBooks stores alone.