The impact of iPad on content planning

Quentin Ellis, 04 Jun 2010

 

Apple has reported that iPads are selling faster than iPhones by reaching the 1 million sales mark in just 28 days (as opposed to 74 days for the iPhone). This would seem to indicate that Apple have once again managed to steal a march on their competitors by cornering the tablet market as they have with the MP3 player and the smart phone.
Love them or hate them, Apple has become synonymous for excellence with their iPod, iPod Touch and the iPhone. Firstly they are very desirable, elegant and wonderful to use. Secondly is that along side the technology, Apple created a new content ecosystem that has reinvented how we consume music, games and applications. More importantly this ecosystem allow Apple to control the access to the content though iTunes.
Will this happen with the iPad and publishing? I think not. Even if the iPad completely changes the way we read our newspapers, books, magazines and articles, Apple will not be able to control the access to this content. There are some very big players that will love the chance to piggyback on the iPad’s success.
One of these will be Google with their announcement of Google Editions, their own ebook store, which will allow customers to download and read books on any device with a browser. Obviously this includes the iPad. Bypassing iTunes.
Then there is Amazon and their Kindle (which is also a free app available for the iPhone and the iPad). The Amazon Kindle ruled the ebook reader device market with over 2 million sold. However sales have stalled with the launch of the iPad. Should Amazon be worried? Not according to James McQuivey’s article in the Guardian titled “Why the iPad actually strengthens Amazon’s position” (http://bit.ly/cSrr9q). In his article he explains that Amazon have a huge advantage over Apple when it comes to selling books as even if Apple could offer a full library of books, it can’t offer the decade’s worth of reviews, comments and community connections that Amazon’s bookstore has. He goes on to say “If you’re an iPad buyer, chances are about 90% that you’re also a book buyer on Amazon. Amazon has your credit card on file, they know what you like...That relationship is the key to selling books”.
As these two examples show, even though the iPad will have a massive impact on the tablet market and on how we choose to consume newspapers etc, Apple will not be able to control the access to this content and it is this that will prove to be so exciting to Brands. The only question is what does this mean in terms of their content planning?

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