Despite Apple’s well known success, Apple’s new interest in textbooks raises mixed feelings from Cal State Fullerton students; however, its iBooks Author app may benefit professors.

On Jan. 19, Apple released an update for the iBooks App on iPads that will includes textbooks on the book selling app. Since the update, the app carries eight $15 textbooks and one free textbook; however, they are aimed toward K-12 education. Rumors have emerged that Apple might extend its textbook audience.

“They changed their iBooks app, so that it would have more interactive textbooks within it,” said Daniel Koelsch, Titan tech supervisor in the Titan Bookstore. “They’re making a big push so that they can get textbooks into the digital era.”

According to Koelsch, nothing is definite and everything is up in the air, but rumors about Apple carrying college textbooks, in the near future, have arisen on MacRumors.com.

“They plan to go into the college market, to my understanding,” Koelsch said. “The prices there, obviously, aren’t going to be that low – publishers don’t want to go that low; they want to make that money.”

Some students who do not own an iPad embrace the possibility of purchasing an iPad in order to use the new feature.

Frank Wong, 20, a business major with an emphasis in marketing, said he would not mind purchasing an iPad if Apple were to join the college textbook market.

“Currently, I’m more of a textbook person, only because I haven’t had a lot of experience with ebooks, but I think I can get used to ebooks,” said Wong.

Wong also said that the possibility of integrating textbooks into other Apple products, such as the iPhone, would be a good idea for “on-the-go reading.”

Celicia Tran, 36, a business major with a concentration in finance, said she already reads her textbooks on her iPad, so the idea is not new, but would consider purchasing textbooks from Apple if they are less expensive.

“It’s cheaper, but the thing is it’s harder for me to log into the account to find the book; to log in there and read,” said Tran. “I have to compare the price to see which one is cheaper.”

Nattaya Mathitak, 24, art illustration major, is also open to the idea of Apple branching out, even though she currently owns an Android tablet.

“I would consider purchasing an iPad,” said Mathitak. “The price would definitely matter but usually ebooks are cheaper, anyways.”

Along with the introduction of textbooks to the App Store is iBooks Author, an app designed for Mac.

“I think it’s good because you can create your own textbooks on the Mac now, as part of the whole thing,” Koelsch said. “You can actually create your own free textbooks, so, I think for people who are majoring in education, or even professors that are here, I think it’s a really good alternative for them to create their own kind of coursework.”