Rivitid

This is a guest post by Jamie Vidamour. Jamie is an IT Consultant in the offshore finance industry

YesterdayYesterday reviews we saw the start of a revolution… A revolution that was inevitable and will change the way we read.

When Apple created the iPod, it wasn’t the first mp3 player, it wasn’t the best sounding mp3 player, and in fact, it technically wasn’t even an mp3 player. But it struck a chord with a large part of the population and flew off the shelves. It pushed the concept of a digital music player into the public spotlight (as opposed to just the geeky gadget buying section of it) and revolutionized the way we buy and listen to music. However, Apple’sApple reviews iPod did something far greater than than just revolutionize music….it also made Apple cool. The majority of people who have bought a Macbook or iMacimac in the last 5 years would never have considered a mac with out the halo that the iPod provided. This brand awareness makes any launch of a new apple product a big deal.

Three years ago, when Apple announced and launched the iPhoneiPhone, it changed the way people use their mobile phones and access the InternetInternet when they are out and about. As with the iPod, before the iPhone there were touchscreen smartphones. Most with more features and for a much cheaper price. But, the iPhone had two things going for it: the magical Apple brand and the benefit Apple’s user interface design.

Yesterday we saw the new apple tablet. The iPad. And while it isn’t -yet again- the first, cheapest or most powerful, it is going to have a huge impact and change the way we interact with the Internet, video and especially the written word.

E-readers have been trying to change the way we buy and read books for a number of years, but small black and white screens have limited their usefulness when it comes to colorful magazines, large format newspapers or just the familiarity of turning pages. The iPad will gradually integrate into peoples everyday way of thinking. Publishers will realize that their product -be it from any of the traditional forms of publishing- can be just as successful and user friendly as traditional routes. Just cooler, more accessible and more fun. The key to this is the user experience.

Amazon’s KindleKindle 2 reviews and the New York Times have been available as iPhone apps for a while. These provide a custom interface for reading content from a certain provider. While these work reasonably well, each is unique with different layouts, interfaces, and more importantly payment models. In fact, The New York Times was one of the apps shown during Steve Job’s presentation in iPad form. It was shown as an example of how the old media can control and present the way users receive their output. But, this could be all about to change.

Apple are all about the interface. You don’t -and can’t- revolutionise the publishing industry by providing a large hand held screen for publishers to use as they wish. What would be the point in investing so much in development of new interface? With the new iBookstore Apple could create a new format, telling publishers “that’s the way its going to be” and put themselves in the middle claiming their 30%.

Apple’s new e-publishing format will provide a quick and easy way to adapt written content for the digital age. iBookstore will provide a way to get that content in front of users and more importantly, get paid for it. There are currently around 125 million iTunes accounts with credit cards. These users have proved their willingness to spend money on small chunks of content be it music tracks, apps or videos. It’s this monetization of content that the old media are crying out for. Advertising revenues are falling and few websites have found a good model for charging for online content. Even major publishers such as Newsnews corp and Conde Naste and suffering from falling profits. So are they going to sell their souls to Steve Jobs -like music industry has- and sit back and ride the revolution?

Of course they are.

The iPad may not be the device that we were waiting for. Depend on the way you look at it, there are some glaring omissions in it’s specification. The argument on whether or not it will be any good is a whole different column. But it doesn’t matter. iPads are still going to sell in huge numbers and every year they’ll get a little better. But by then the main stream population will be reading digital magazines and ebooks and the revolution will be over, and Apple will be the biggest name in publishing.



Popularity: 2% [?]