McGraw-Hill Exec Confirms Apple Tablet

On CNBC today, McGraw-Hill’s CEO Terry McGraw confirmed that Apple will be announcing a “tablet-style” device tomorrow.  Of less importance is the confirmation of the device to me than the fact that a company with such a presence in the textbook publishing industry is very likely close to Apple and the expected device.  As M-H looks to expand into more online books, it’s likely that their periodicals will be there soon as well, and undoubtedly taking advantage of the Apple iStore for sales & distribution.

The pressure this puts on Microsoft and it’s business partners is incredible, as the device is expected to use the 4.0 version of the iPhone OS and thus have access to not only the existing portfolio of applications but also the growing interest in HTML5 (which Google is already taking advantage of with their Google Voice application).

Having been a “Field Champ” within the Microsoft sales team during the time of Windows XP Table PC Edition, I applaud the validation that Apple will bring to the segment.  The expected adoption never took place over the past 7 years, mainly because of the premium charged by the PC manufacturers (dumb idea) and the fact that there wasn’t a consumer entry to be found – the “Mira” project was supposed to solve this, but died an early death before even getting a chance in the market.