This week on iPadTabletPCReview.com…
The Big iPad and Tablet PC stories
The days are ticking down to when the iPad lands in an Apple store near you.
It looks like books and games will be the focus initially with AppleInsider reporting that a study from ComScore of potential iPad buyers suggested 37% would be “likely” to read books on the device. The Kindle app for the iPad was previewed by Engadget and 9to5Mac reported that Project Guttenburg’s 30,000 free ebooks will work on the iPad. The Unofficial Apple Weblog followed this up with a post along the same lines but highlighting the 30,000 free ebooks will be available via iTunes. Project Guttenberg is a library of free ebooks, with classic literary titles.
Mashable also reported that we can expect the iPad launch to focus on the iPad’s gaming capabilities as over half the iPad applications being tested fall into the “games” category.
A few surveys on what people planned to use their iPad for filtered through this week. The first article from AppleInsider.com highlighted how a third of potential buyers expected to read books and newspapers. It shows that people are taking the iPad seriously as an e-reader.
The next survey finding, again reported by AppleInsider.com established that a lot of people are looking at the iPad as a means of working whilst on the move. I don’t think this has been much of a focus up-to-now but does suggest that the iWork app covering word processing, presentations and spreadsheets will be very successful once the iPad launches.
Continuing in the world of iPad apps, Gizmodo published some leaked iPad app store screen shots. It looks like Apple are going with some higher priced apps for the iPad with “iPad only” versions marked as “HD”. This makes sense as the iPad versions will employ greater functionality to maximise the greater spec compared with an iPod Touch or iPhone. No doubt these prices will move around in the early months as Apple and the developers work out the right biting point to generate maximum revenue. Watch out when you buy an app in future though as it looks like there could be lots of different versions for different devices.
Meanwhile, As traditional media (newspapers and magazines particularly) attempt to find new ways of making money a couple of rumours surfaced this week on pricing models for news and magazine content on the iPad. Check out: “WSJ on iPad for $17.99 a month, magazines to be at or near newsstand prices?” from engadget.com.
Based on this article we can expect to see the Wall Street Journal available on your iPad for around $18 per month (compared to a monthly subscription of the newspaper of $29). Again we can expect these prices to move around as they attempt to find the optimum levels of price and demand plus how prepared people are to pay for their premium content.
In the UK, it’s also been announced that you’ll have to pay to access The Times and Sunday Times online from June. Interesting times ahead to see if traditional media can reinvent its business model in the new world.
Following on from last weeks news on non-Flash site development. Another story filtered through from Engadget about CBS trialling a HTML 5 (non-Flash) version of their video content. Again I can’t see many of these providers maintaining two versions of their site for Flash and HTML 5. Given HTML 5 is much more standards compliant with modern web browsers and stable, Flash could be heavily under pressure if people switch away from it. Check out: “CBS testing HTML5 iPad video out in the open, sorry Flash”
For those who are staying away from the iPad launch hype. PC World posted an article discussing “iPad Alternatives” covering the WePad, HP’s Slate, Innovative Converged Devices’ Ultra & Vega, Norton Ink’s Adam and Stantum’s reference design.
Also, at last the JooJoo tablet is shipping, we’re expecting too see what it’s like soon. Check out: “JooJoo tablet now shipping, should greet US consumers on March 29th” from Engadget
And finally…
The Unofficial Apple Weblog posted why it’s worth jumping in straight off with the WiFi only iPad. I think I’ll hold off for the 3G version as I want the flexibilty of both WiFi and 3G. Great post though!
That’s all the news for this week, please contact me if you’ve spotted any other key stories or leave comments on this post.
Image Sources: Amazon
