iPad for Publishing

In an April of 2009 blog post I predicted that the iPad (which I called the 10" mystery device at the time) would allow Apple to dominate the video industry (games, movies and television) in the same way that the iTunes/iPod allowed them to dominate the music industry and the iPhone to dominate the mobile phone industry. I stand by that prediction, but I want to add another industry to Apple dominance story, publishing.

When I speak about publishing I'm talking not only about books but also magazines and newspapers. Just take a look at announcements by Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and Wired. They all plan to support the iPad and you can bet they'll have applications on the ready when the device launches or shortly there after. But why are these major publishers so interested in the iPad? I read this article on Baynewser which answers that question. The article quoted Chris Anderson of Wired at TED 2010 stating that the iPad "[is] an opportunity to reset the economics," of digital publishing. "For the first time, people may value this experience so much they'll pay for it." That got my attention.

One of the problems with digital content on the Web is that people expect it to be free. In fact, that's one of the greatest strengths of the Web: the amount of free content. While free is great for consumers and the World, it doesn't do much for publishers in terms of putting food on the table. The iPad provides an opportunity to change all that. We've already become accustomed to paying for iPhone applications, its seems natural to pay for iPad magazines, books, and news papers provided the experience is significantly better than the dead-tree versions. And it will be.

The iPad is the perfect blend between the traditional in-the-hand dead-tree reading experience and the digital on-the-desktop reading experience. In fact, its superior to both. iPad will allow you to read what you want, when you want just like a paper book, magazine, or newspaper. But the iPad will also allow you to do so much more like search for keywords, make notes, carry two dozen books/magazines/newspapers with you at once. The iPad is far more versatile than its comparatively anemic brethren, the Amazon Kindle. With a full color screen and a powerful set of application tools, you can do amazing things with the iPad. Things that no other eReader has been able to deliver except for the iPhone.