anIDEA

What is AgencyNet’s perspective on how this will revolutionize the print media industry – specifically magazines and newspapers? I was surprised to see that Steve Jobs made no mention to either of these media channels. It makes no sense that Apple would not want a part in the goldmine of selling digital magazine?

AgencyNet is a well known interactive agency, do you foresee any untapped revenue opportunities for the company with the release of the iPad? It will definitely be interesting to see how interactive agencies can (or cannot) benefit this new mobile device – any thoughts?

Sound great!

@Jason Apple has indicated their interest in the publishing industry since the unveiling. Obviously, the iPad represents a significant opportunity for the publishing and educational publishing industry — and a great reading experience for readers.

The real challenge is going to be adoption. Will the iPad be adopted in great enough numbers to make any kind of significant dent in revenues for the publishing industry? That’s hard to say at this point. IMO, this device is not going to blast off like the iPhone did, but that doesn’t mean it will be a failure.

The fact is, unlike the iPhone, Apple needs to convince consumers they need a NEW electronic computing device beyond their cellphone and laptop (as the capabilities of the iPad will replace neither.) That’s a tougher sell than just creating a revolutionary device that we already need to replace.

I think Apple would be smart to make strides with college students. Textbooks are crazy expensive. While I was in college, I remember spending up to $400 – $500 a semester on text books. It was brutal. Many of my fellow students bought half price or used copies. Many of them simply stole them. Many didn’t buy them at all.

The capabilities of the iPad are perfect for a textbook publisher. No resale on books. Interactive elements, diagrams, equations. Easy version updates. No printing costs. Potentially very hard to steal. If Apple can get textbook publishers on board and sell their books at a significant discount, an entering college student may find it cheaper (or close to as cheap) to buy an iPad to use for 4 years than to buy full price printed textbooks for 4 years. That could get adoption rates seriously kick-started.

As a developer, if the iPad takes off, it could create additional demand for digital agencies. Not only will our iPhone apps have more devices they can run out, but we may find ourselves scaling or creating more apps for the iPad itself — great news for an agency like ours who already has the technical competence to produce for it, thanks to intimate familiarity with the iPhone SDK.

We’ll definitely be keeping our eyes on this one. But it’s going to come down to the “gotta-have-it” factor that happens when people start seeing it on the street.

@Brian

You’ve provided great insight on other topics and I was hoping you would touch on this one as well. Thank you for your input – I agree – the factor of just delivering digitally formatted books into this mobile device comes with too many benefits that it would be illogical to not make the transition – thats why we saw the Kindle and other spins of an “e-reading” device before finally seeing the Apple iPad. It just makes sense.

As the VP of Marketing for a large brand, the biggest issue I see is that Apple will not be offering magazine publishers the ability to distribute their content in an iTunes/iBooks store format, at least that’s what it appears. It’s clear that one day we will all read magazines from an e-reading device. Paper magazines will be a thing of the past. Considering the iPad is a success and more people will see the need to purchase and use Apple’s reading device, you would only imagine that Steve Jobs would want to profit off each magazine sale. It’s an untapped goldmine.

Our company used to heavily advertise in magazines because it was effective. We spent “big” dollars every month to capture the large volume of people who used to buy and read magazines. Time has proven that less and less people are buying magazines. We’ve determined that magazine advertising is no longer worth the investment and have since minimized our print advertising significantly.

However, I foresee great advertising opportunities with a concept of digitally delivered magazines (and newspapers), so I’m excited to see what happens. The question is, when can we expect this? Are we still 5-10 years out? I hope not. Even if a third-party developer (such as AgencyNet) could create an application that fills the need – it’s doubtful Apple would accept the app and let another company profit from something Apple could easily create themselves?

Jason

What type of computer chip does the iPad use

I regret getting a MacBook Air!

I heard ipad is terrible. This info dosn’t help to decide at all