Several blogs including All Things Digital and AOL/TechCrunch are reporting Apple is planning a small scale announcement later this month in New York City.
Speculation centers on an update to the company's iBooks business, which has been under very effective attack by Amazon's new Kindle Fire. Rumors say Apple Vice President Eddy Cue will speak. Cue is in charge of content sold on iTunes.
Electronic books don't get as much attention as social apps like Flipboard, but as the number of older tablet users increases, simple books will become more and more important.
This holiday season Apple started selling iTunes gift cards marked as "iBook." Really they were iTunes gift cards rebranded for new Apple users who have no interest in buying Angry Birds.
It's not expected Apple will announce any new hardware at its New York announcement. Apple normally stays in California for announcements, either at its Cupertino campus, at a rented theater in San Jose, or at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Making an announcement in New York in late January or early February has its risks - as News Corp found out last February when it announced its Daily magazine app for the iPad. The announcement was snowed under by one of the worst blizzards in modern history.
