Apple’s Tablet Is Based On iPhone OS, Publishing Bigwig Says

Leander Kahney ()


Publishing mogul Terry MrGraw of McGraw-Hill says Apple’s tablet is based on the iPhone OS, not OS X as many fans are hoping.

In an interview with CNBC, McGraw-Hill’s CEO said his company has been working with Apple for “quite a while” and has prepped 95% of its textbooks for the tablet, which will be a hit in the higher education market.

When asked about by the anchor about the Apple tablet, McGraw said:

“Yeah, Very exciting. Yes, they’ll make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while, and the tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable… We have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format. So now with the tablet you’re going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific.”

Frrm his tone, it sounds like McGraw has seen the tablet — or a prototype. Watch the video above: he sounds very confident about the operating system. As previously reported, the iPhone OS is the logical choice for the tablet.

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14 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, Apple Tablet, News, Rumors |

  • http://geek.derekmartin.ca Derek Martin

    Steve Jobs is going to drive over to Terry MrGraw’s house right now, and kick him squarely in the apples.

  • shaunathan

    let’s be honest here. This is a guy who runs a company, he approves budgets, he talks to share holders, he lunches, he determines what books to own and which to have made.

    As an IT professional who supports execs I can tell you these kinds of people generally are not technology aficionados.

    Now, this is no slight on Mr. McGraw. I’m sure he’s a very intelligent person. All I’m saying is I doubt he has time or the inclination to really study the differences between the Mac OS X operating system and the iPhone operating system.

    Eve Steve-o himself, the day he debuted the iPhone, said “and it runs on OSX” as we know now, it runs on a FLAVOR of OSX.

    All I’m saying is sometimes an exec isn’t the best place to go for cutting edge information. Now if they interviewed the Chief Information Officer… that would have been more telling. I also promise you they wouldn’t have spilled the beans a day early.

  • Angel

    Sounds like he knows just enough to know the difference between the iPhone OS and X.

  • http://www.drtablet.com Dr. Tablet

    Ouch. Didn’t ATI or NVIDIA steal Apple’s product announcement thunder once? I seem to recall that there were … repercussions.

  • Phil

    Darwin awards :)

  • Charli

    if you can digitally highlight, take notes etc in those e-texts and the prices aren’t ridiculous it will be awesome. i’m tired of hauling 50 lbs of text books around.

  • http://www.KeyStakeholdersBlog.com Nickie

    Just a reminder folks: The “iPhone OS” is a version of the “Mac OS”. That’s why we can do all those neat things to iPhones (albeit mostly to jailbroken iPhones) like use it as a 3G > WiFi hotspot, etc.

    So how bad could it be if the UI doesn’t use the Finder?

    Cheers!

  • John

    It will come down to cost. Apple will not make this device cheap (if it even exists) so I’m expecting it to be close to US$6-700. Now compared to a plastic Macbook is US$999 and is a very good notebook, but a full one with a proper GPU, proper CPU, fast disk based storage and a much more open Operating System platform it is going to be hard to justify the cost.
    If it is only US400, then it makes more sense. Afte rall, they will be able to charge a premium for apps through the iTunes app store and take a cut on each one sold.

  • http://www.toxicspark.com Andrew Macdonald

    Leander, sorry to hijack this post, but why are all my emails going unanswered to you and Traci?

    I’ve emailed you and her directly on four occasions now with reference to my “prize” from the Facebook competition at the start of December 2009. Since then, i’ve heard pretty much nothing from you, nor received my signed book.

  • Dustin

    I’m wondering if we will see some convergence of the Mac OS and the iPhone OS, given that they have the same foundation. For example, I would love to be able to run my iPhone apps when I invoke Dashboard, and not those piddly Dashboard widgets. Is anyone developing Dashboard widgets anymore? Maybe if Apple allowed developers to charge $1 for downloaded widgets, we would have seen more Dashboard widget development. When I click on the Dashboard icon in my doc, I would love to see all of the icons for my iPhone apps pop onto the screen. Come on, Apple, they can already run on a Mac in that simulator you made for the developer toolset. :)

  • TV

    “I’m glad I went to school when I did because I like to smell my text books…some people just like to do it” I bet she’s being mocked over that one.

  • Mattzook

    It’s a controlled leak. The timing is too perfect, it was timed perfectly the day before Steve Jobs’ announcement. This leak was timed to drive up enthusiasm and television hype for the product. Notice how the McGraw CEO did not flinch or did not hesitate with his answer one second. He knew EXACTLY what he was going to say. It was rehearsed. He already knew what he would say, and only what Apple allowed him to say.

    The Apple Ninja Death Squad will be spared for another target.

  • http://none eric

    HA THATS WHAT THAT FUCKING MORON GETS FOR SCAMMING US COLLEGE STUDENTS OUT OF OUR FUCKING MONEY.. I hope Apple keeps him off FOR LIFE. charging 500 bucks for a 100 page book! HA!!!!!
    I wish I can get his email so I can spam his box with happiness

  • http://synergyarticles.com SynergyArticles.com

    This man should be taken away and never returned. Steve has worked so hard on this launch only to have it ruined by amateurs who are used to inferior technology. I bet he hasn’t even heard of NeXTStep. If this is the standard of McGraw Hill Steve should ban them from the Tablet. I hope he is proud of himself.