Apple Plans Education Announcement in New York on Jan. 19

January 11, 2012, Business Week

By Adam Satariano

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. plans to make an education-related announcement in New York on Jan. 19, pushing further into a market it penetrated early on with computers that won a following among students and schools.

The event will be held at the Guggenheim Museum at 10 a.m., the Cupertino, California-based company said today in e-mailed invitations to the event.

The event will focus on electronic textbooks and mark the first event hosted by the company since co-founder Steve Jobs died in October. Before his passing, the former CEO had set his sights on transforming educational publications, according to biographer Walter Isaacson. Jobs said the $8 billion-a-year industry was set for digital upheaval because of the iPad, a tablet computer that went on sale in 2010.

Jobs had held meetings with publishers such as Pearson Education Inc. about partnering with Apple, according to the book, “Steve Jobs,” published last year. Jobs wanted to create electronic text and curriculum material for the iPad.