If anyone had any lingering doubts that Apple would indeed unveil a tablet today in San Francisco, they probably can be put to rest with Terry McGraw's comments last night in an interview with CNBC.
McGraw, who is chairman, president and CEO of McGraw-Hill, was featured on CNBC's Earnings Central after the company posted impressive first-quarter financials. When asked about the publisher's recent talks with Apple, McGraw was anything but shy about revealing Apple's closely guarded secret.
"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. So what you are going to be able to do now – we have a consortium of eBooks. And we have 95 percent of all our materials that are in eBook format on that one. 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," McGraw said.
The fact that McGraw confirms the tablet will run on the iPhone operating system could mean some big changes for those toting the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Recent rumors suggest the device will get a new set of multi-touch gestures, as well as multi-tasking capabilities
McGraw-Hill, which also own the ratings company Standard and Poor's, posted a 44 percent earnings growth for the quarter, which it attributed mainly to a recovery in the global debt market and a rebound in textbook sales, including eBooks.
Apple is set to unveil the tablet at a media event in San Francisco today. The event begins at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Check www.wirelessweek.com for additional coverage of the event.