Now, the hard part.
Before it existed, Apple's iPad was infused with the wishful expectations of a thousand hopeful constituencies, none with more at stake than a host of media businesses still grappling to find a killer app in the digital domain. Now that we know what the iPad does, though, it's still an open question how the much-heralded device will actually improve their fortunes.
The good news is that book publishers, magazine publishers, newspapers, the recorded-music industry, television studios, game developers and film studios — all of whom need some form of lifeline, some desperately — each have a place at the iPad table.
But in the advertiser-supported niches, print analogs still command higher advertising revenues than their digital equivalents. So, the question will turn on two issues: Will publishers get to control the customer relationship to a greater extent than has been possible with iTunes? And will publications be the kind of shiny eye candy that advertisers crave, but now delivered on a bright, crisp, LED-backlit touchscreen instead of heavy-stock glossy paper.
The answers are mixed, simply because this versatile device offers the same myriad distractions as the average computer does, or maybe even more. In order for anything to succeed on a platform like that, it will need to be perfectly designed and contain top-notch content with interactive features and automatic updates wherever they make sense (in magazines, perhaps, but perhaps not in books).
The iPad's defining characteristic is that it gets out of the way. Over and over during Wednesday's presentation, Apple executives mentioned the intuitive way in which the iPad encourages users to reach out and touch the content they're interested in, from New York Times headlines to a selection of television shows, with a minimum of obstructions.
The same way the iPad's design gets out of the way, its effect on the future of the media's finances is neutral and depends on how media companies approach the new device. Nonetheless, this brand-spanking-new $500-to-$829 device has definite implications for each of the major media industries even before they get out of the gate.
Wired.com's Brian Chen and Dylan Tweney were right about Apple launching a book store to complement the iPad. The new iBook store will work pretty much the same as iTunes, functioning as one of 12 new apps that come installed on every tablet, and allowing users to choose books from a growing catalog. People who may never have contemplated actually buying an e-book before might consider it, now that it's something they can do on their shiny new tablet. Authors and book publishers will have a larger market to pitch to, and they could take more risks on lower-selling authors, given the low cost of distributing e-books.
Still, books have not fared well during the growth of other electronic media and will face the same stiff competition on the iPad that they face elsewhere. Either way, Amazon's Jeff Bezos should feel a bit tense today facing new competition from an extensible device that also does e-books and can be had for less than the price of a DX Kindle.
The prospect of buying downloadable television episodes on iTunes hasn't caused a mass exodus from cable- and satellite-television providers, and neither will the prospect of the buying and watching videos on the iPad. That said, the HD-video support is nice, and this new hardware option should provide a small boost to sales of and subscriptions to all types of video in the iTunes store.
Because iTunes videos are formatted to look good on the iPad, video consumers have an incentive to buy that music downloaders lack: Just about every device plays MP3s without a hitch, but video is more complicated.
Although things could change on this front as more periodical publishers launch issues they've been preparing for the iPad, Apple's demonstration of the New York Times on the iPad left a lot to be desired. Before the announcement, conventional wisdom was that the iPad would somehow make print sexier than it appears on a computer monitor.
Other than the ability to touch headlines to read the stories, the iPad doesn't appear to offer the sort of print makeover many had expected — it's a sort of incremental improvement over the newspaper's Adobe Air–powered Times Reader client. Still, early reports indicate that device's display is crisp, with rich colors. If that's the case, it will make any well-designed, high-quality publication look good.
In addition, magazine publishers can take advantage of the device's ability to play video by embedding it into articles, and can update their publications with the latest news in real time, should they choose. Apple's device is what publishers make of it.
Our own parent company Condé Nast is preparing a number of iPad e-zine subscriptions, including GQ, Wired magazine and Vanity Fair, sources tell Wired.com. In an interview before the iPad announcement a senior executive said that while the company it was still very enthusiastic about the iPhone platform — whose downloads already count towards ad-rate–setting circulation guarantees — but was poised to take full advantage of the iPad and "eager to see what kind of additional functionality they have they baked in."
The iPad offers a step forward for music fans and recorded-music companies in the form of support for the iTunes LP format – a deluxe, extras-laden package that previously played only on desktops and laptops running iTunes.
ITunes now includes over 11 million songs. To make them stand out, artists and labels have the option to create iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras packages that include photos, videos, and animated lyrics and liner notes. So far, few have taken Apple up on that, in part because Apple only opened its SDK in early December, and in part because labels probably (correctly) figure that music fans will be reticent to pay money for something they can only watch on a computer.
Steve Jobs demonstrated the iPad purchasing an iTunes LP – John Mayer's Battle Studies - Deluxe Version (iTunes link) – and said the iPad can display at least the photos in iTunes LPs. Apple has yet to respond to our question about whether the iPad supports iTunes LP, but the iPad comes with 16 GB to 64 GB of flash memory, which is more than enough to hold a few 500-MB–plus iTunes LPs among other data.
All signs indicate that the iPad will be a boost to full-album sales through the iTunes LP format. Of course, it will also play music you download for free elsewhere, so those iTunes LPs had better look pretty good.
See Also:
- Apple Tablet: Full Coverage
- A Closer Look at Apple’s New Tablet, the iPad
- Essay: Steve Jobs’ Legacy Is Missing Clue to Apple Tablet
- Live Coverage: Apple’s Special Tablet Event
- Forget the Tablet — Apple Needs to Rebuild iTunes
- Say Hello To The iPad Touch
- In-App Sales and iTablet: The Killer Combo to Save Publishing?
