Apple will begin providing its Apple Store employees with free iBooks titles next week as part of a new ‘iBooks Discovery’ program. According to a new report, the company announced the initiative at its quarterly retail meetings, which took place over the weekend.
The move is said to be part of an effort to get retail staffers more familiar with both the iBookstore and the iBooks app ahead of the arrival of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks this fall. Apple is reportedly looking to make a heavy retail push for both operating systems…
9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman has the scoop:
“Announced at Apple Retail’s store quarterly meetings today, Apple will begin providing its employees free iBooks titles next week. The initiative is called “iBooks Discovery” internally.
The move comes ahead of the launch of both OS X Mavericks and iOS 7. Mavericks will be the first Mac operating system to feature the iBooks app and iBookstore, so Apple is providing their employees paid titles for free as a way for the employees to further familiarize themselves with iBooks.”
The long-awaited Mac version of iBooks in OS X Mavericks offers a number of features that will appeal to both avid readers and, particularly, students. Apple showed off a few of them at WWDC last month, including full-screen reading, note-taking, and flash card creation.
As for the initiative, it’s just a piece of a bigger puzzle in Apple’s attempt to get its retail team ready to push iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. It’s also recently provided some of its employees with access to beta versions of OS X Mavericks, as well the upcoming iWork for iCloud.
Both OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 are expected to launch in the next few months, alongside the new iPhone and other product refreshes.