The first iPad was debuted by Steve Jobs to thunderous applause on March 12, 2010. Many media pundits criticized the tablet for its ridiculous name and called it a huge flop. Fast forward two years later, and we couldn’t imagine a world without the iPad. It has shaped what Apple has dubbed the “post-PC era.”
Over 50 million iPads have been sold to date, and Apple just sold 3 million third-generation iPads over launch weekend. Most tablet manufacturers dream of selling 3 million units in a year, but analysts estimate that Apple will sell an upwards of 66 million iPads in 2012 alone. That is an absolutely astounding figure.
A new report from app analytics firm Distimo takes a look at the iPad and its App Store footprint two years later. Let’s take a closer look:
Apple’s Newsstand is only about 6 months old, but it’s already raking in a decent amount of cash for media publishers. According to a new report, iPad owners are spending $70,000 per day for content in the iOS 5 Newsstand.
Consumers are buying subcription-based content from publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Daily. Unsurprisingly, the majority of revenue is coming from in-app purchases.
The updated Guardian is cleaner and clearer, but still doesn't support retina graphics
The Guardian’s excellent iPad app has been updated to make it cleaner, faster and easier to use. The Guardian is the one Newsstand periodical I pay for because, even though you can get almost all of the same content on the website for free, the app is outstanding.
The new version makes it even better. However, there is one huge omission: support for the new iPad’s Retina Display.
A recent update to the iTunes Terms and Conditions adds an interesting clause regarding free trials for in-app subscriptions in the iOS App Store. Ever since the launch of the App Store in 2007, users have been clamoring for some kind of demoing system for paid apps. It looks like Apple may be slowly making strides towards that reality.
Publishers “may offer a free trial period” via in-app subscriptions in an iOS app, according to Apple.
The iPad's new Retina Display could spell doom for already-bloated magazine apps
The iPad’s new Retina display is going to look fantastic. Reading text, for instance, is going to be like reading text in a real magazine, only brighter. This is great news for us, the readers, but not so good for the designers and publishers. Why not? Because many iPad magazines use bitmap images to make their pages. At normal resolution, this works out to perhaps 150-300kB per page, according to David Sleight of Stuntbox. When resized for the Retina display, that goes up to 2MB. Per page.
Yesterday we brought you a story all about how Apple is inadvertenly censoring rappers and their profane lyrics, but it looks like Cupertino isn’t happy with just ruining rap music… they also want to make sure your Newsstand magazines don’t talk about penises, even in a clinical, scientific sense.
Yet another publisher is singing the praises of Apple’s Newsstand appfor the iPad. Magazine publisher Condé Nast announced Tuesday a 268 percent hike in subscriptions after the tech giant released Newsstand as part of iOS5 unveiled in early October.
Want another example of how Apple’s masterful use of design fuels sales? Like the empty iPod that just screams out for you to buy music, the empty shelves of recently-unveiled iOS 5 Newstand begs to be filled with magazine and newspaper subscriptions.
The Guardian‘s new iPad app is a triumph. It’s an excellent daily newspaper in tablet form, designed to make the most of the tablet format without over-indulging in it.
I confess: when I first looked at Apple’s new Newsstand app when iOS5 was released last week, I felt nonplussed. There didn’t seem to be any content in the store that I’d want to subscribe to. I became one of the many people who tried to find ways to hide the Newsstand icon altogether.
![Two Years Later, iPad Apps Rule The World [Report]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
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