The Aspirers Group, an educational reseller of Apple Inc, has teamed up with textbook publisher Wattana Panich Publishing Co to offer e-books on tablets in an attempt to capitalise on the country's 8-billion-baht digital content market.
The cooperation will make Wattana Panich the first Asean publisher to provide fully interactive digital content in a turnkey system not limited to a portable document format (PDF) e-book.
The Aspirers Group said 30% of the 39,000 schools countrywide have the potential to transform traditional learning to interactive learning by using e-books on tablets.
Wiroj Asawarungsri, the group's deputy managing director for IT publishing and system integration, said Wattana Panich has many textbooks from kindergarten to secondary school levels. These textbooks will be transformed into interactive e-books and bundled in special education prices for Apple's iPad including technical support.
Worachai Chongpipatanasook, an executive of Wattana Panich, said the government's One Tablet Per Child policy has propagated the use of e-books.
Digital textbooks each cost 100 baht including a learning management system and testing method, he said.
More than 100 schools in Thailand use Apple's iPad and the number is expected to reach 500 by the end of this year, Mr Wiroj said.
The market for digital textbooks excluding hardware is worth 8 billion baht annually for 10 million students.
The Aspirers Group also plans to convert content to support Google's Android-based and Windows 8 mobile devices.