By J. Sturgeon | Financial Post | 01. 30. 2009 They stole headlines last year and were championed as the saviours of the newspaper, magazine -- in fact, all print media. This year, industry observers say e-readers like the Kindle made by Amazon.com will take off with consumers as we continue to shift reading habits from paper to screens.
Steve Jobs brought things to a fever pitch this week when his Apple Inc. introduced the iPad, a device many said would accelerate and revolutionize that trend. With it would be the return of paid content.
"We're going to stand on [Amazon's] shoulders and go a bit further," the celebrated chief executive said during the introduction of the product: an oversized touchscreen device with the dimensions of a large hardcover book.
Integral to Apple's e-book approach is the creation of iBooks, an application that serves as a storefront for the Cupertino, Calif. firm's new online e-bookstore. It will sit on the iPad's main screen, allowing readers to purchase major titles from the world's biggest publishers, including Penguin and Harper Collins.
Still, if the iPad is to convince readers to pay for digital print products, it struggled to impress veteran media observers.
"It checked off on its to-do list everything that was obvious. Make an e-reader application. Make sure you have a bookstore integrated into it. Use the elegance of the device to create a reading experience and be able to pull books off bookshelves. All of that," said James McQuivey, media technology analyst at Forrester, a U.S. researcher.
"But there is an opportunity missed here to take it to the next level."
In general, the iPad is simply an enlarged version of the iPod Touch with the addition of an e-book application, many analysts said.
For instance, the New York Times, which plans to begin charging for its Web content next year in another attempt to stem falling ad revenues, unveiled a new app for the iPad at the presentation. Yet there is no indication it differs to any great degree from the free one now offered on the iPod Touch through Apple's App Store.
As important, innovation on the social media front -- which could provide a value-added service and thus, be worth paying for -- is lacking from the iPad's e-reader experience. There is no way for users to tell their friends or Twitter followers automatically what they are reading (or buying).
"[Apple] could have demonstrated a much more integrated reading experience," Mr. McQuivey said.
It does not mean it cannot be done later on. But the iPad's saviour status took a tumble in the wake of Mr. Jobs' presentation on Wednesday.
That may not be lost on Apple, which priced the base model at a modest US$499 (16GB). The most expensive model is only US$849 (3G-capable, 64GB), perhaps in recognition that Apple has not reinvented the wheel with the iPad as it did with the iPod in 2001 and the iPhone in 2007, analysts say.
Canadians can get their hands on it in March. But it will be a version strictly made for local Wi-Fi networks. After that, a more expensive "3G" model that can access the Web through a cellphone carrier's wireless network will be introduced, possibly in late spring or early summer --it will be available first only in the U.S. through AT&T.
"Apple was in a position to say, 'Look, we're going to partner with publishers that create apps that are innovations in reading.'" Forrester's Mr. McQuivey said.
It may still be, but the iPad and its army of developers have more work to do yet.
jasturgeon@nationalpost.com
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