Apple Event - Live Blogging/Streaming Coverage

[Harmon]

Speaking strictly from the reading perspective, the iPad will do the following:

1. email
2. most ebooks, free & otherwise using various Apps
3. blog reading, aided by Readability
4. magazines/newspapers, aided by calibre/Stanza/apps
5. internet article reading, aided by Instapaper
6. RSS, aided by Byline (I hope) and other apps

It is a one stop fairly portable reading appliance, packaged in a user friendly form. Assuming that 10 hours battery life is correct for reading, that will be fine. Just set it in its charger at night. General home wifi is enough for readers – constant access is not as important as predictable access. 3G – probably of no importance, except perhaps road warrior types. And if your eyes get tired, there are audiobooks.

But now, here's another, non-ebook perspective:

"It's Apple's netbook - no hard drive, 64gb, lightweight, long battery life, built-in 3G, voice via the Skype app for iPhone/iPod Touch. I'm definitely buying one, because I can do everything I need to do on a business trip with this thing, yet it's slimmer/lighter/has more battery life than my MacBook."

I'm beginning to think that this device is not a single device, but one that can be repurposed by the user toward the user's needs. I think it's a mistake to criticize it for what it doesn't have, because what it does have appears to have been very deeply thought out in terms of where Apple can carve off chunks of several different customer groups. The iPad will not replace e-ink based readers, but it will carve off a big chunk of the large screen market. It will not replace netbooks or laptops, but it will carve off a chunk of that market in which portability is highly important but deep work is not. It will carve out a certain part of the gamer market, and another part of the audio/visual market.

This device is not a game changer. What it is, is a very astute move by Apple to service parts of several submarkets for portable electronic devices which are not being well served by existing devices.

What the iPad is NOT is a device which is intended to move into a specific category of existing devices - ebook readers, netbooks - in their entirety.

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by scottjl

i have a 32g iphone that is always around 90%. for me i think i'll be grabbing the 64G non-3g. those movies and music files add up.

Funny, I have a 32g iPod Touch, and it's just a bit over 50% full. I have a fair amount of music on there, and loads of podcasts, but I don't use that aspect of it nearly as much as others, I guess. Mostly I use it to read. I've got nearly 2000 books on there (as much of my paper library as I've been able to find). A few still images. No movies. I suppose that might change at some point... but mostly I'm not interested in carrying movies around with me. I like books.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Harmon

As usual, one of my sons has come up with the correct strategy: buy the l6 gig non-3G iPad now. Start saving for the second generation, which is the one you really will want.

Not me!

[charleski]

Originally Posted by kilron

it's called quality control. "megalomanic"? hardly. and how exactly are they harming the industry? why on earth would apple pay adobe to license something they can very well do themselves? its smart business which the typical end-user will never care about. and that's somehow a universal bad thing? bear in mind that some folks who read these forums may be "typical" end users, but many may not. i don't think big businesses like apple and amazon care about the extreme users. they care about making something simple and easy to use and approachable for the masses. that's their bread and butter.

It's pretty obvious that a typical end user would like to buy a shiny new iPad and still be able to read the books bought for their old Sony. It's pretty obvious that the current fractured state of the ebook market in which books bought at store A won't work on device X is a major factor in limiting its growth and merely causes frustration for customers. Of course that's a 'bad thing'!

This has nothing to do with 'extreme users', who will simply strip the DRM and convert the format. This is about the ordinary customer who simply wants to be able to read the books they bought.

It's certainly not about quality control. It's about Apple wanting to snub Adobe for wider political reasons.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by charleski

It's pretty obvious that a typical end user would like to buy a shiny new iPad and still be able to read the books bought for their old Sony. It's pretty obvious that the current fractured state of the ebook market in which books bought at store A won't work on device X is a major factor in limiting its growth and merely causes frustration for customers. Of course that's a 'bad thing'!

This has nothing to do with 'extreme users', who will simply strip the DRM and convert the format. This is about the ordinary customer who simply wants to be able to read the books they bought.

It's certainly not about quality control. It's about Apple wanting to snub Adobe for wider political reasons.

Id argue that the TYPICAl end user almost never re-reads a novel they buy. so seems pretty obvious that they wouldnt be bothered to me.

Im a massive reader and i only re-read probably 5% of my books, the average guy on the street who reads Dan Brown, lee child etc im guessing pretty much never rereads.

of course we are both guessing unless you have some data to suggesr reading already read books is important factor for typical end users.

[scottjl]

now this guy has it right

and

gizmodo has a pretty good analysis too.

and a comparison of 6 from gizmodo. interesting, 4 out of the 6 do not support adobe flash. hmmm.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by stustaff

Id argue that the TYPICAl end user almost never re-reads a novel they buy. so seems pretty obvious that they wouldnt be bothered to me.

You're really grasping at straws.

I often buy a bunch of books at once, and may not read all of them until months or sometimes years later. Lucky for me, I have the know-how to make sure I can still read my ebook purchases whatever device I happen to be using. But it's tough luck for the ordinary Joe who's not tech-savvy and decides to buy an iPad on the basis of Jobs saying, 'We use the ePub format, the most popular open book format in the world.'

This doesn't even merit debate. Only the most blinkered, fervid Apple apologist could imagine that further fracturing of the ebook marketplace brings any benefit to consumers or publishers.

[kilron]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Equally, people have to acknowledge that there's a significant market segment who really DO want a non-backlit screen...

i can admit that there are people that may prefer e-ink displays over something else, but saying there's a significant market segment of people like this is a leap i don't believe. you're making the assumption that because the majority of eBook readers are e-ink, then all of these people MUST prefer e-ink over backlit LCD. do they actually have a choice though? i don't think so. they're going with what the eBook market gives them, which is basically no choice.

i'm just not sure how you can make the assumption that the number of people who want only a non-backlit screen is a significant market segment. i just haven't seen anything to prove it.

[TallMomof2]

Originally Posted by scottjl

now this guy has it right

and

gizmodo has a pretty good analysis too.

and a comparison of 6 from gizmodo. interesting, 4 out of the 6 do not support adobe flash. hmmm.

The Android devices should eventually have Flash It will require Android 2.0 and won't be out this year.

I still wanted a OSX version of the iPad. I'm sure the XL Touch will do well but I think I'll wait for something more open and powerful. Meanwhile, I'll add Win7 to my old Samsung Q1 and see how that works.

[kilron]

Originally Posted by charleski

It's pretty obvious that a typical end user would like to buy a shiny new iPad and still be able to read the books bought for their old Sony. It's pretty obvious that the current fractured state of the ebook market in which books bought at store A won't work on device X is a major factor in limiting its growth and merely causes frustration for customers. Of course that's a 'bad thing'!

This has nothing to do with 'extreme users', who will simply strip the DRM and convert the format. This is about the ordinary customer who simply wants to be able to read the books they bought.

It's certainly not about quality control. It's about Apple wanting to snub Adobe for wider political reasons.

you call it political, i call it smart business. which makes more sense? maybe its both, who knows.

but the one huge advantage that the iPad has over any other eBook reader (e-ink or lcd) is Apple's AppStore. right there you have Stanza which can read several formats, you have Amazon's Kindle app to read any books purchased in Kindle format and you also have a Barnes & Noble eBook reader so you can read any books purchased that would otherwise be read on the Nook. so right there you've accomplished compatibility with 2 heavyweights in the business in a very very easy to use way. can you give me any other eBook readers out there that can just as easily (i.e. without converting using some other software) read both Kindle and Nook eBooks?

who's to say that adobe or someone else doesn't build an app for the iPad to allow reading of those other DRM'd books?

[kilron]

Originally Posted by charleski

This doesn't even merit debate. Only the most blinkered, fervid Apple apologist could imagine that further fracturing of the ebook marketplace brings any benefit to consumers or publishers.

you're missing what's right in front of your eyes. give me the name of another eBook reader that allows you to read Amazon eBooks, Barnes & Noble eBooks, and all of the formats available through Stanza combined, without conversion or DRM stripping? and you're also assuming that no one comes out with an App that will also read your Sony reader eBooks too. are you willing to bet good money that it doesn't happen?

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by kilron

you're missing what's right in front of your eyes. give me the name of another eBook reader that allows you to read Amazon eBooks, Barnes & Noble eBooks, and all of the formats available through Stanza combined, without conversion or DRM stripping? and you're also assuming that no one comes out with an App that will also read your Sony reader eBooks too. are you willing to bet good money that it doesn't happen?

erm there is already an app for reading sony/adobe epub drm books.

[kilron]

Originally Posted by Harmon

As usual, one of my sons has come up with the correct strategy: buy the l6 gig non-3G iPad now. Start saving for the second generation, which is the one you really will want.

ha! true that. yep, in a year they'll probably release one with a webcam/camera built in (which is the only thing i found it lacking personally form a hardware standpoint), and maybe a higher res screen.

[kilron]

Originally Posted by stustaff

erm there is already an app for reading sony/adobe epub drm books.

really?? cool! is it stanza or something else?

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by kilron

i'm just not sure how you can make the assumption that the number of people who want only a non-backlit screen is a significant market segment. i just haven't seen anything to prove it.

There were LCD-based readers before epaper came arround, you know. Then they sunk without a trace. PDA's with reasonable sized screens have faded away as well, to the smartphone market...which again has not had a serious impact on readers.

I'd suggest you pop over into the eye strain thread and have a read...