In case students were looking for another reason to pick up the "magical device," then they may not have to look further than iPad textbook startup Inkling. Today they won the financial backing from two of the biggest players in the textbook industry in McGraw-Hill and Pearson.
Inkling founder and chief exec Matt MacInnis states that the company's goal encompasses using the content of an existing textbook as a skeleton, then "casting off the shackles of the book" and adding in interactive and multimedia content that would only work on the iPad. The company has now released 14 textbooks, and should be up and running with more than 100 titles by this fall. Just in time for the new school year!
While MacInnis does acknowledge competition from competitors such as ScrollMotion and Kno, he feels his company stands out from the rest by wanting to publish apps that feel like they were truly built for the iPad, which does mean needing to work with the books' authors to establish new content.
"It only gets interesting when the content itself changes and begins to respond to your fingertips," said MacInnis.
With McGraw-Hill and Pearson's blessing, including partnerships with John Wiley & Sons, W.W. Norton, and Wolters Kluwer, Inkling has a hold on "95 percent of the content universe," says MacInnis.
via VentureBeat
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