Apple is known to sold Mac, iPod, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV. You may use them for whatever you want, even send email or work on a spreadsheet, but ultimately it’s not what interest Apple.
The new Apple is no more a computer company, a new direction was taken by Steve Jobs when he renamed Apple Computer to Apple. It was not to mean that Apple will sell computers, smartphones, music players, tablets or whatever, the real meaning was Apple switched it’s focus from it hardware+software stack to the content itself.
Mac might be used to access Content, display them, play them, create them, wether it’s iOS Apps, Mac Apps, music, video or even books. iOS devices are meant to access Content, through this new giant distributor, Apple and it’s online store. PC could be used to access content too, with iTunes for PC.
We all see the emerging business-model where iOS devices are more and more present, the iPad being the brightest success of the industry, on a market that nobody seemed to understand until Apple unveiled it! But this market is not about selling tablet only, but an eco-system.
With the huge success of iTunes Store being the first music distributor, making money as no other dreamed of, beginning with the majors and then offering contracts to bands too, Apple was tempted to apply this business-model to the software world (for Mac and iOS devices), and was rewarded with a huge base of great software, a revolution in the software world as it was for the music.
Now, Apple turns it’s tentacular capacities to the books: the january 19 announcement of iBook and it’s tools is not targeted at education. you would be misleading to think about it as an education move. It’s clearly iTunes going to sell books, to sell books that everyone will be able to create on Mac and read on iOS devices or Mac, anywhere, to be sold by Apple online stores. Amazon killer?
Amazon signed some great authors last year, to by-pass the publishing industry, with great results. They have tablet readers, they sold online, but Amazon is not as ubiquious as Apple, lacking computer-based eco-system to create content, and willing to stay mainstream .
Apple wants YOU to write a book, publish it on iTunes Store by your own means, without a publisher, without any investment, they also want the biggest author to turn back their publishers and go independent, with 70% of each books in their pockets! If it’s not a big deal what could be?
Apple is investing in TV world massively, rumors says they are going to buy soccer rights, to be able to stream them on iOS devices and Mac (or PC), it’s still rumors, but after Music, Applications, Movies, Books, the next fronteer is the TV with live events, shows, sports, etc.
And definitively, Apple is going to be an incredible big media distributor, not a computer or smart device maker!
