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Originally Posted by RedHeadPeter
The newspaper/magazine market is interesting. There is a war underway already between those newspapers (like all those owned by Rupert Murdoch) who want to charge for e-access and others (like the Guardian group in the UK) who don't and (in a 3rd camp) those like the BBC who aren't a newspaper but still provide enormous amounts of news and journalism through their licence-fee funded operations.
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Mag and newspaper publishers have also been frustrated by the current state of e-book reading devices (especially lack of color), and how badly (in their opinion) it presented their product. They have been screaming for better HW for their magazines, and now that a device is out there, they have something to aim for. Expect a number of magazines to create subscription-based apps for their products, and possibly remove most of the online magazine content to encourage users to subscribe to the apps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedHeadPeter
It is, though, just an iPod on steroids. I want a device that size (but preferably 16:9) that is a proper computer. But it would have to be significantly better than my netbook to make it worthwhile.
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An iPod on steroids it is, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. There are plenty of people who need no more for their daily use than a device like this. And sure, some will not want it because it's not pocketable... but possibly as many others will want it, for exactly the same reason. (Hey, don't know how you're gonna carry it around? I think any woman can tell you...
) Consider that, and look at how well iPod Touch has done in the market, and I think there's no doubt iPad will do well.
As far as e-books, I agree with others that, once people have these devices, some of them will discover they can now read e-books, and so will try it, possibly for the first time. Some (hopefully many) of those will like the experience, and keep it up. I don't expect the e-book industry to impact iPad sales one way or the other, but I do expect iPad owners to grow the number of e-book reading consumers.