Apple Tablet Sneak Preview

by Braden Kelley

Following on from my article on what innovation an Apple Tablet might offer and Idris Mootee's article on Apple's 3D efforts for gaming, I bring you a video sneak preview of some of the innovation an Apple tablet might offer.

This isn't of course exactly what an Apple tablet (or iSlate) might look like, but it gives you an idea of one application type that an Apple device might offer, and it shows the further disruption coming to the book, magazine, newspaper, and television industries.





You can see in the video that in such a device, even more so than on the traditional web, that magazine publishers now need to have video, and merge or partner with people that produce video on the same topic. ESPN is particularly well-positioned for this type of new content consumption environment because they already have a print magazine, a web property, and content from several television channels that they can bring together into a seamless experience. It is ironic that Sports Illustrated is helping people imagine a world that ESPN is more likely to dominate than they are.

Such device capabilities will also raise the bar for what it means to publish a book, as the potential to incorporate images, video, slide shows, and mini-applications more easily will offer the opportunity for authors to better address visual and kinesthetic learners than ever before.

You can also see the possibilities to design such a device to extend television and gaming experiences beyond the main screen and make television more interactive than ever before.

At the same time, if Apple launches such a tablet device, it will still bring with it the ability to play music, video, and games in the same ways that people do today with their iPod Touch, iPhone, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, or portable DVD player. And, if they find the right screen, Apple will likely offer the first compelling portable High-Definition (HD) entertainment experience.

With the right technology, as you see in the video, an Apple Tablet may be able to offer every single type of entertainment in a convenient way in a single, portable device (including web browsing with a mobile broadband connection).

Final thought: With such a device, there is also no reason why you couldn't get location-based services with text, audio, and video content at museums, theaters, sporting venues, theme parks, and more - to enhance any physical world experience in new ways.

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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Electronic Readers Hit the Big Time

Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook

by Kevin Roberts

Fear of new technology is not new. In 1982, the king of all Hollywood lobbyists, Jack Valenti, told the US Congress:


"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."


Hysteria aside, the movie industry was utterly convinced that the advent of video cassettes would destroy the film industry. 30 years on, video and DVD have had the opposite effect - far from undermining the industry, they are integral to its ongoing profitability. How could Hollywood keep producing so many films, at such great cost and such variable quality without the "straight to DVD" option? Even the notorious box-office bomb, Waterworld, almost broke even in the end, thanks to DVD sales.

There has been similar angst about the fate of books and the publishing industry since the arrival of the Internet and new technology like e-readers. In 2007, the US National Endowment for the Arts reported a "remarkable decline" of American reading habits, its chairman saying that it would damage the civic, political and economic fabric of the country. The New Yorker chimed in, quoting sociologists who claimed that "reading for pleasure will one day be the province of a special 'reading class', much as it was before the arrival of mass literacy." The Boston strangler strikes again!

E-readers are all the rage this holiday season. Industry experts forecast that Amazon will sell 900,000 Kindles in the last two months of 2009. The Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook, which sold-out before it even hit the shelves, are also on a tear. There was a lot of skepticism about e-readers in the first couple of years, and a lot of doomsayers who thought they spelled the end of the written word.

The truth is that technology has ended the monopoly of bound, mass-produced manuscripts we call books, and expanded choice for readers. We can read on the computer screen, on dedicated e-readers like Kindle and Nook or on our cell-phones.

We love books for the stories and the emotional power, the insights and inspirations. Who ever puts down a great book and says, "Wow, I loved the paper-stock, and the font was awesome!"

People who love reading will read more than ever before - I know I do.

Circumstances, mood and moment will determine how and what we read - the Kindle is great for plane trips or train-rides; the cell-phone works well for a quick catch-up with emails or news, and nothing (for me, at least) will beat the pleasures of a book on a beach, or a bookshop on a rainy afternoon.


Editor's note: Will Apple go after the e-reading market with the rumored Apple tablet?

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Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

Does BN Nook Compete with Amazon or Starbucks?

by Steve McKee

There has been a flurry of news lately about Barnes & Noble's new e-reader, the Nook. It will compete head on with Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader, offering additional features such as limited book sharing and newspaper subscriptions. If successful, of course, those features will be matched by the Nook's competitors, just as Barnes & Noble has matched their price points.

It's fascinating to watch these three powerful companies--the dominant bricks-and-mortar bookseller, the dominant online bookseller, and a long-dominate electronic industry player - compete in this new arena. And word is that Apple's e-reader isn't far behind, which will further mix things up (and will be good for us all).
I couldn't help noticing, however, a little aside in a recent Wall Street Journal article about the Nook. The article was talking about how Nook users would be able to receive discounts and other special offers when they walk into the store, a smart use by Barnes & Noble of its one true competitive advantage over Amazon. But the piece went on to say this: "Eventually, the company says, customers will be able to read entire e-books for free inside the physical store."

Read entire e-books for free? Why would Barnes & Noble want to give away content? How's this for a reason: the company may have up its strategic sleeve the idea that it can become the other Third Place.

Starbucks has always been an appealing place to linger, and many people go there to enjoy a good read as they nurse their lattes (most Starbucks locations sell a handful of newspapers and books to encourage just such behavior). While Barnes & Noble has in recent years been adding coffee bars to many of its locations, they have always seemed to be somewhat of an afterthought and secondary to the company's primary purpose of selling books. But by offering free in-store content with the Nook, Barnes & Noble seems to clearly be saying that this is they place they want people to linger. And Since none of us can be in two places at one time, Starbucks and Barnes & Noble may increasingly butt heads.

It's a fascinating world in which we live, where two previously unrelated companies can wake up and find themselves arch-competitors, and it's fun to watch such changing dynamics unfold. Keep your eye on Barnes & Noble as it continues to take advantage of its physical locations (the one thing its current big competitor, Amazon, can't match). In combatting one foe it may have just picked a fight with another.

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Steve McKee is a BusinessWeek.com columnist, marketing consultant, and author of "When Growth Stalls: How it Happens, Why You're Stuck, and What To Do About It." Learn more about him at www.WhenGrowthStalls.com and at http://twitter.com/whengrowthstall.