• Mashable, Monday, January 23, 2012 12:21 PM

Off to a promising start, consumers have downloaded more than 350,000 textbooks in the three days since Apple debuted its education initiative. That’s according to Global Equities Research, which also found that some 90,000 users downloaded the Apple’s ebook authoring software, iBooks Author. Apple unveiled the “Textbook” category in its iBooks app last week, originally offering two textbooks from partners McGraw- Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, priced at $14.99 or less.

“Apple’s ambitions, however, go far beyond these two books,” writes Mashable. “With iBooks Author it aims to make it easy for everyone to create an ebook or a textbook containing not only text but also rich multimedia and 3D content.” Without vouching for the initial sales figures, Mashable adds that they’re “a good sign for Apple’s textbook business.” While it still has a long way to go, Apple is in a position to permanently change the face of education. “With its textbook initiative and partnerships with key publishers, Apple plans to make the iPad a primary education tool and corner the textbook market.”

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