Apple’s long-awaited tablet computer, likely to run a version of Mac OS X and to merge the touchscreen stylings of the iPhone and iPod Touch with the full functionality of the MacBook line, is expected to be aimed at revolutionizing the way print media deliver text to readers. If true, the device would again put Apple at the cutting edge of a field where Amazon, Microsoft, Sony and others, are trying to set the standards for e-book distribution and licensing.
After a summer of hullaballoo and expectation, and the hopes that the device would be introduced along with the new iPods at a September event, it now looks like the Apple tablet will be introduced sometime in early 2010. Reports suggest Steve Jobs has “reset” the tablet project multiple times, out of concern the projects presented were not offering consumers a distinct enough field of uses to warrant an entirely new field of computing and device manufacture.
Now, Gizmodo reports it has confirmed that Apple has initiated negotiations with major print publishers, including not only McGraw-Hill —a major publisher of educational materials—, but also The New York Times and others, with the aim of securing content distribution rights and format collaboration to deliver textual content to readers via iTunes.
Such a system would allow publications to secure subscription payments from readers who want a full-access pass to content that more closely resembles a printed page than the way web pages work now. McGraw-Hill and Oberlin Press are said to be working with Apple to make textbooks available through iTunes, with the aim of allowing them to be published and viewed on the touchscreen tablet device.
The new Apple device would allow for full-color digital publishing, unlike the Amazon Kindle, which uses a grayscale eInk e-paper display. E-paper may be evolving, and it should eventually be capable of rich color displays, but at present, Amazon insists the grayscale look is meant to mimic the simple black-and-white pages of paperback novels and newsprint.
Textbooks are an important area of market innovation for the touchscreen tablet project. As Gizmodo notes:
The logic here is that textbooks are sold new at a few hundred dollars, and resold by local stores without any kickbacks to publishers. A DRM’d one-time-use book would not only be attractive because publishers would earn more money, but electronic text books would be able to be sold for a fraction of the cost, cutting out book stores and creating a landslide marketshare shift by means of that huge price differential. (If that device were a tablet, the savings on books could pay for the device, and save students a lot of back pain.)
There is also a feeling that the touchscreen tablet might be something like Apple’s way of proposing a head-on rival for the burgeoning “netbooks”, micro-laptops that are cheap, small, lightweight, and focused on using web-based services and applications. It’s an important move to make, because while MacBooks sales are strong, Apple has had to reduce the cost of its cheapest MacBook already by $100 to $150, in order to keep its market share among students.
Steve Jobs has said netbooks are “junk”, and while some have proposed that the iPhone is really Apple’s response to that market, it has the drawback of requiring an AT&T monthly contract and not really being a strong word-processing platform. There are hopes, however, that the tablet might be cheap enough, maybe $500 or $600 at the high end, to undercut the appeal of the much less technologically advanced netbooks.
Jobs has been particularly demanding that a device with as much potential to revolutionize user interface standards not turn into another Newton, the Palm-like device that came just a little before its time. AppleInsider reports:
It seems like a long time coming. Nearly two years have passed since AppleInsiderexclusively reported in September of 2007 that Apple’s next big product initiative would be a modern day reincarnation of its beloved-but-defunct Newton MessagePad. And it’s believed the device had been slowly evolving as an R&D project for at least a year prior.
The 10-inch, 3G-enabled tablet, akin to a jumbo iPod touch, is the latest brainchild of chief executive Steve Jobs. That distinction, as insiders will tell you, carries its share of baggage. Under the critical eye of Jobs, contours must be precise, each pixel of the interface has to match a particular vision, and there can be no fault — no matter how slight — or it’s back to the drawing board.
The Apple tablet will be a vital step forward in the evolution of edgeless electronic reading devices, because right now, there is no e-reading device that is equipped with a fully functional graphic-user interface (GUI) or laptop-style operating system. A touchscreen tablet computer that runs an advanced full-service version of Mac OS X will push the envelope of digital media manipulation, and allow Apple to take the lead in setting standards for the next generation of on-screen “print” content.
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