iPhone News Updated

Apple starts selling interactive iPad textbooks

Apple Inc. on Thursday launched its attempt to make the iPad a replacement for a satchel full of textbooks by starting to sell electronic versions of a handful of standard high-school books.

The electronic textbooks, which include “Biology” and “Environmental Science” from Pearson and “Algebra 1” and “Chemistry” from McGraw-Hill, contain videos and other interactive elements.

But it’s far from clear that even a company with Apple’s clout will be able to reform the primary and high-school textbook market. The printed books are bought by schools, not students, and are reused year after year, which isn’t possible with the electronic versions. New books are subject to lengthy state approval processes, making the speed and ease with which ebooks can be published less of an advantage.

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Big iPhone sales expected to highlight 57% Apple profit jump

The iPhone 4S is expected to be the star in Apple Inc. ’s profit report on Tuesday for its fiscal first quarter, the period in which co-founder Steve Jobs died.

Analysts are projecting a 57 percent year-to-year jump in earnings to $10.07 on a 45 percent increase in revenue to $38.76 billion.

This would be a stark contrast to the previous quarter in which the company fell short of analyst expectations on revenue because of delays in introducing the new iPhone, which didn’t happen until October.

But Apple is projected to post record sales of both the new smartphone and the iPad, with analyst Michael Walkley at Canaccord Genuity for example predicting that 30.5 million iPhones and 13 million of the tablets were sold.

Sales of the iPad may have been even higher, if not for new competition from Amazon.com Inc. ’s $199 Kindle Fire. A report last month said that Apple’s share of the tablet market had fallen from 69.7 percent to 65.6 percent.

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