For Apple’s Upcoming Tablet, Content Is King
3:43 pm, September 30th, 2009, Leander Kahney
As Brian Lam on Gizmodo today says about Apple “redefining print” for its upcoming tablet, it’s all about the content.
If Apple has learned anything from the iPod, it’s that a modern consumer electronic device is a three-legged stool: hardware, software, and media that fills it.
Apple doesn’t want to launch a tablet without media to consume on it. This is the mistake Apple made with the Apple TV: It’s a great piece of hardware and software, but the content isn’t there yet (especially the paucity of Hollywood movies).
So Steve has set out to persuade publishing houses, magazine companies and textbook publishers to make interactive books and magazines that make sense on an interactive, multitouch device. Here’s the key paragraph from Lam’s story:
“Some I’ve talked to believe the initial content will be mere translations of text to tablet form. But while the idea of print on the Tablet is enticing, it’s nothing the Kindle or any E-Ink device couldn’t do. The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. And with release dates for Microsoft’s Courier set to be quite far away and Kindle stuck with relatively static E-Ink, it appears that Apple is moving towards a pole position in distribution of this next-generation print content. First, it’ll get its feet wet with more basic repurposing of the stuff found on dead trees today.”
But what might this “hybrid content” look like?
One clue comes from Enhanced Editions, a U.K. startup founded by former-book industry executives that seeks to marry technology with traditional print publishing. “We have long-since seen the destiny of the latter bound to its embrace of the former,” the company says.
Founded in 2008 after the launch of the App Store, Enhanced Editions says the iPhone/Touch platform is a unique multimedia device, while iTunes presents an exciting distribution mechanism. So the company created an iPhone app for publishing “enhanced” ebooks. “We set ourselves the mission of making the reading software that Apple themselves would make,” the company says.
The company just published it’s first enhanced eBook, Nick Cave’s “The Death of Bunny Munro.” See the trailer for the book above.
Available as a $24.99 app (there’s also a free lite version restricted to the first three chapters), the app includes:
* The Bunny Munro ebook.
* An audiobook narrated by Nick Cave himself, synchronized to the text.
* An original ebook soundtrack, composed by Cave and Warren Ellis, that’s been specially mixed for headphone listening.
* 11 videos of Cave reading excerpts from the novel.
The app can be used to switch between audio and ebook versions, and remembers your place even if you switch formats. It has tilt to scroll, the ability to add bookmarks, or email quotes to friends. There’s also built-in news reader that receives news and extras sent to the app. The company says it has other multimedia tricks up its sleeve, but is keeping them under wraps for now.
The book is being well received, but the app is getting rave reviews. “The app itself is amazing,” says one reviewer on iTunes. “This is the new (and hard to beat) standard for book as app,” says another.
It’s not hard to imagine how such multimedia-enhanced ebooks, and likewise music CDs (Apple’s rumored “Cocktail” project) would be ideal content for a touchscreen tablet.
Next up from Enhanced Editions are Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father and Audacity of Hope, and The Corner by David Simon and ED Burns (of HBO’s The Wire), among others.
As they said during the first dotcom boom, “content is king.”
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Opinions, Rumors, Tablet | Comment on this article
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the content issue is also why I believe we won’t see the device in early 2010. we’ll see the announcement. it will use the iphone os and will release, I think, in early summer along a new unlocked iphone (buhbye ATT only). with both cell data and wifi it will be an actual netbook rather than a junior sized laptop.
now why do I think they will announce it in advance. Easy. they will also announce they are increasing their review staff with 25% of them being set up to fast track review new ‘tablet’ versions of already approved iphone/touch apps to be ready by the release date. that way they have materials already available for sale when the device goes up. developers might even be able to offer special pricing for the first couple of months to those that bought an app for the phone/touch and now want the tablet version. sort of like what happened when the whole music store went drm free and you could rebuy tracks for 30 cents a pop
Charli, on September 30th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Hey Leander,
For what it’s worth, I did a detailed analysis of what it would mean for Apple to “re-invent” print media in digital form, concluding that Apple has three key things going for it that make it a natural:
1. A pre-existing 50M device footprint with the iPhone + iPod Touch that provides leverage for a new device;
2. A proven dynamic platform (read: integrated hardware-software-services-tools) for end-to-end content creation, application development, distribution, and global reach, supported by deep application and media libraries, and a robust runtime space;
3. A durable billing relationship with consumers to the tune of 100M credit cards on file (iTunes + App Store, Mobile Me).
Plus, the history of Steve Jobs dating back to Next suggests that this is strategic to him (and thus, Apple), something the post covers:
Rebooting the Book (One Apple iPad Tablet at a Time)
http://bit.ly/zOoEu
Check it out if interested.
Mark
Mark Sigal, on September 30th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
now the thing is it talks about ‘mock-ups’ of digital magazines
….. er, I’ve been getting this delivered to me every month for over a year:
http://issue.monkeymag.co.uk/1G4aba0864523b1601.cde/page/22
(I hope it opens okay)
I also get a daily London paper in a similar format (almost 2 years now)
IMO this WILL become how the current print media will get their revenue but I’m surprised that it’s talked about as new.
…. anyway, I reckon the worlds press/entertainment media will soon be putting Steve top of their christmas card list as he’s pretty much rescued them
It looks like Apple will pretty much do it again – revolutionise the way we used to use print media
I can seriously see myself sitting on the crapper finger swiping the very latest edition of The Sunday Times….. no more inky fingers!
media_lush, on September 30th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Why do we think that the Wall Street Journal has proposed paid online reading/subscriptions…
The rumor mill in publishing is that it’s all about to change to paid subscriber reading… Because Ad-blocking is so affective online they have to leach viewers in another way…
Advertisers wont be happy
Rob, on September 30th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Ideal content for something like this would be your old encyclopedia software. Obviously updated. But when I was studying you used to use Encarta, or whatever the software was to not only read articles, but view pictures, videos, listen to sounds, etc. This type of reference software would be ideal for a tablet and make it a great product for students. Especially if references materials provided by schools started to come out in an e-book format with multimedia. When I studied Cisco, there was small videos and diagrams for some of the content. If it was published in the format for a tablet it would be great.
DK, on October 1st, 2009 at 1:23 am
If they work with a company like ZINIO.com then it will be a smash hit.
Boruce Lee, on October 1st, 2009 at 11:41 am
It’s beautiful to see the company line of “buy our content” sold so well. How much disposable income does the average mac guy have that they would buy an oversized Iphone to read books. Don’t they have a ebook reader type software for the iphone. Will this have a full os on it or some locked down iphone os. I can see the point if this is a fully functioning mac sans keyboard and mouse but this economy will kill a book reader unless apple has some super slick marketing campaign that will turn the average american into a reader. Good for them if they can but I doubt it will happen.
I know tons of dumba**es who have iphones (i’m not saying only dumba**es have iphones), but how do you turn anything designed to sell reading material into a shiny trinket like an iphone that the average american non reader will be attracted to enough to spend multiple times the cash on.
blackjesus, on October 2nd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
The tablet… to me this is a dead idea if it can not be used to create things… spreadsheet for work… one click and a tap at a time will be agony… a mouse and a keyboard get added… your back to my MacBook Pro. So they do away with the idea of created content … HELL even the keyboard in Mail that does not work on my iPod touch has not been addressed by Apple and its a brand new product… if they can’t address the simple shit, how the hell do they expect to get the hard shit right ? As for the iPod Nano with a camera that smaller than useful, that is a bad, bad mistake. The iPod touch needs a camera ! They are trying to bleed out their products to everyone to convert the young to iPods and get them into the product cycle… don’t piss them off Apple by giving them crap like the Nano.
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xiacycndovohr, on November 20th, 2009 at 7:51 pm