Mobile Media

Among all the predictions about how the iPad will revolutionize media, I think this is among the most relevant and important: "We're hoping you can lean back with this thing, curl up on the couch and take it into the bathroom and read it," said Bill Jensen of Village Voice Media.

"Some of you bring your laptop into the bathroom," he continued. "I know you all bring your iPhone into the bathroom." Those of us who work in digital media may need to start thinking about those baskets full of magazines and Sunday papers in bathrooms everywhere.
 
Jensen was part of a South by Southwest Interactive panel called "iPad: New Opportunities for Content Creators."

As Matt Waite of the St. Petersburg Times noted, there is a certain amount of irony in a panel based on speculation about how people will use a device that isn't on the market and has been touched by just one person in the room. Yet the speakers offered interesting thoughts about issues of design, media consumption, media production and revenue.

Is there a market for this device?

Raven Zachary, who developed the Obama '08 application for the iPhone, noted that this product is different from the iPhone because the market for smart phones already existed when Apple got into the game. In this case, Apple is trying to create a new market between the smart phone and the laptop, and no one knows for sure how consumers will end up using the iPad. But he is confident that there is a huge demand for this product.

How will people use their iPads?

You're probably familiar with the description of this as a "lean-back" device. Jason Grigsby of the Web application firm Cloud Four said he believes that the iPad will be used to create media, too.

Shervin Pishevar, whose gaming company SGN makes a number of games for the iPhone, said he spent some time at Apple's launch figuring out if he could type easily on the iPad. Within 10 minutes, he was up to 85 words per minute. "At 85 words per minute, my laptop is dead," he said.

His iPhone already supplants his laptop for 30 or 40 percent of the time he used to spend on his laptop (and 100 percent of the time in the bathroom). He thinks the iPad will cut into that even more. He'll probably just take his iPhone and his iPad when he travels. "My laptop will be the rotary phone of our generation."

New design conventions will be developed for the iPad's touch interface. Will scroll bars, for instance, become a remnant of non-touch computers?

Can companies treat the iPad like a big iPod Touch?

The iPad will require a different approach than the iPhone. As Grigsby put it, the iPad is what you will use in a coffee shop; the iPhone is what you will use on your way to the coffee shop.

One key difference: Native apps are beneficial on the iPhone because they enable access to the device hardware -- the GPS, compass, camera. But those features aren't on the iPad, so native apps may not play the same role.

Pishevar implored the audience not to simply offer the same app for the iPad as they do for the iPhone.

"If you went and basically ported the exact same game or app onto the iPad," he said, "you would be doing your customers and your fans a disservice, because there's a lot more capacity there." He said he understands the need to rush something to market, but urged the audience to iterate quickly.

How will the device impact media companies?

Companies that value design will benefit from the iPad's ability to highlight aesthetics, Jensen said.

With the Web's 110 million sites and 25 billion indexed pages, it's incredibly hard for a media company to differentiate its products -- even if it offers excellent writing, photography and other content. "The iPad, with its focus on quality of design and images, will be more helpful than the Web" in doing that, Jensen said.

He noted that many people read weekly publications like The Village Voice for the ads, which are represented poorly online. "It's going to bring back nice-looking design, and good-looking ads, too."

Jensen said he believes that the iPad will further increase the need for true multimedia journalists who can shoot photos and videos and write stories. And they'll have to be fast -- it can't take them weeks to produce a video.

Will the iPad challenge the Xbox?

Gaming already makes up a large share of the top-grossing iPhone apps, Pishevar said. The iPhone, according to Pishevar, "allows us to build console-quality games that look almost like Xbox-type games."
 
He sees even more potential for gaming in the iPad:

• The large screen will enable users to see a lot more going on. (It also will reveal poor-quality graphics.)
• The fast processor will enable a more immersive experience.
• The convenient size will make it easy to handle.

Pishevar said he can envision using an iPhone in conjunction with an iPad, with an iPhone operating like a Wii controller. Or you could play cards, using the iPad as the tabletop and your iPhone to view your cards.

How will the iPad change book publishing?

It goes without saying that book publishers are excited about the iPad because "it mimics the experience of reading a book like nothing else does," said Katherine Tasheff, who handles digital media and marketing at Hyperion Books.
 
Yet there are unanswered questions: "Will it be the same sub-par experience that the other e-readers have provided?" she asked. And how can publishers make it a better experience without incurring too much added production cost?

One challenge in making it a better experience is the uncertainty over the ePub publishing format, which has yet to shake out.

Will the device unchain companies from the App Store?

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One of the main reasons to develop a native app for the iPhone and iPod Touch is that they enable easy payment through the App Store. With the ease of typing on the iPad, consumers may be willing to use the "shopping cart" payment system used via Web browsers. Companies could eliminate the hefty commissions they pay to Apple.