Apple is planning iBook Event in NYC in January

According to a report by All Things Digital published Monday, Apple is planning a media event in New York to make a "media-related," not hardware-related announcement.

Further, sources for TechCrunch claimed the announcement will focus on "improvements to the iBooks platform," and the event will supposedly be more geared towards the publishing industry (not necessarily consumers). Per the usual caveat, the tech giant is well known for moving around their public show-and-tells, so this could certainly change at any moment.

Apple execs—possibly Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet software and services—will host an "important" but not huge event by month's end, which will involve a media-related announcement.

"It's a media-related event of some sort," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research. "And it looks like it will be something about books and magazines, about iBooks. The fact that it's going to take place in New York City gives that away." New York, while not the heart of the U.S.'s technology industry, remains the center of publishing in the country. Several reports have surfaced concerning a possible Apple event in January, including those by All Things Digital, TechCrunch and others. Several of those reports have pinpointed iBooks as a likely focus. The Apple rumors are, of course, in full swing as we open 2012. But much of those reports have focused on products like the iPad 3 and the fabled Apple TV set. Apple product launches usually happen at its Cupertino headquarters or a larger venue in San Francisco like the Moscone Center.

Apple has recently highlighted the ability of its iBooks platform to include sound, video, and other features by offering a free eBook of The Yellow Submarine. We believe the announcement could likely involve support for the EPUB 3 standard, which enables a wider variety of multimedia and interaction features. Amazon recently announced its own similarly improved eBook standard using HTML5 and CSS3.

Several authors have also told that they long for tools to help transform book text into standards-compliant eBooks. The opportunity certainly seems ripe for Apple to offer such a tool. If Apple created software that could generate standards-compliant EPUB files, it could be a boon to both the publishing industry and independent authors alike.

Also unlikely, the rollout of Apple’s large-scale rethinking of the interactive television initiative that it has been working on. While the company is expected to launch a new Apple TV product later in 2012, such an event would almost certainly be held in the heart of the industry in Hollywood or at least in Silicon Valley.

That leaves some kind of advertising or even publishing announcement, which might be the case, since Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue is reportedly involved. Apple also declined to comment on the rumored New York City event. However, Apple would hold its iPhone event on Oct. 4 and that it was moved from San Francisco to Apple's campus, so stay tuned.

Thanks for DVD to iPad Club delivering this article.