Media nerds like me are counting down the days until the iPad becomes available, and a software designer friend of mine just asked me if I thought it would finally constitute a new publishing platform. Here’s what I dashed off:
I think it might do what the iPhone did in that it will rapidly demonstrate the possibility of a new kind of interaction for a wide range of users–i.e., a full-sized touchpad, which isn’t too common on laptops right now. Right after the iPhone came out, we saw a spate of Android phones and other smartphones with the touchpad interface. If the cheap knockoffs start rolling out like mad then I think it’ll really make a difference, especially if schools start adopting them for textbooks and interactive learning. There’s real money there, plus a captive market.
In the short term, it will definitely ratchet up the possibilities for app-driven news, like the one for “This American Life.” And I can see it doing amazing things, finally, for interactive books, especially photo books and graphic novels. But I don’t know if it’ll provide a business model for magazine and newspaper publishers, since people have gotten so used to getting their breaking news for free. They’ll really have to work to find the right price point and to identify the value-added content users will pay more for. News readers have gotten a lot of us so inured to headline skimming that the idea of delving deeply into a story is becoming more foreign. But infographics and maps are tailor-made for this kind of quick-zooming interface, so news that’s delivered that way will flourish. And if there are great interfaces for news skimming, those will rise to the top as well.
God knows I don’t need another gadget (especially another Apple gadget), but I’m definitely curious to get my hands on it. People are complaining that you can’t multitask, but that might actually be a plus if the goal is to get people to consume more immersive, interactive media instead of skating away to their email or whatever. I can also see it being the kind of thing that lies around in the kitchen on some fancy stand, and you read over your coffee, and then use later in the day to look up a recipe or whatever. As the price drops this will become more viable. Smart add-ons will also be in demand, like a rack that would allow you to mount it on the wall like a mini-flatscreen, or a waterproof case that’ll let you read in the bathtub. THAT’s what’d get me to purchase it!
Of course, this is all armchair speculation, based on no substantive consumer research. But it did get me wondering what the iPad might do for political media–especially the sometimes ideologically heated networked media of the kind we describe in the book. As Jonathan Zittrain points out, as with the iPhone, “If Apple is the gatekeeper to a device’s uses, the governments of the world need knock on the door of only one office in Cupertino, California–Apple’s headquarters–to demand changes to code or content. Users no longer own or control the apps they run–they merely rent them minute by minute.”
Something to watch.
