The Future of Magazines? This Could Be It

[Jason Dunn]

<p><object width="600" height="360" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/avM3Aor7Ptg&amp;ap=&fmt=18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/avM3Aor7Ptg&amp;ap=&fmt=18" /></object></p><p>Ignore the fact that it's an iPad - look at the way they've designed the user interface, the flow, the feeling of browsing through the information...this is the future of magazines right here. Not the hardware - the iPad is too expensive, too big, and too heavy to be a true replacement for a magazine - but the concepts are all there. This is the future of magazines...</p>

[ptyork]

Unless I can rip the pages out to wipe my ass, it ain't gonna replace magazines. :)

Seriously, I agree mostly. And I'd actually say that the $499 iPad isn't too far from being priced and sized to actually replace magazines and newspapers for many. But the per issue prices have gotta come down to earth. They've got to figure out how to move to the paid + advertisement model that has forever been the norm for print media. In the e-world, folks expect no ads if they pay. But just this isn't sustainable. Seems like the move to an app-based e-mag would provide the ideal opportunity to (re)introduce this concept.

Perhaps $1.99 / issue with tasteful ads not all that different from print would be workable. $4.99 an issue ($250+ / year) simply isn't. Not even close. Not when you can get the same basic content on the web from Time.com or (really) most any other news source for free.

[Jason Dunn]

And I'd actually say that the $499 iPad isn't too far from being priced and sized to actually replace magazines and newspapers for many.

Really? I think it's waaaaaaaaaaaay too high - it needs to his $199 or even $99 to really gain mass acceptance. Yes, Apple has sold 2 million iPad world wide, but that's not mass-market numbers. The iPad will never hit 100 million units at $500+ in price. It's a luxury item right now.

But the per issue prices have gotta come down to earth. They've got to figure out how to move to the paid + advertisement model that has forever been the norm for print media.

Yeah, agreed there - I refuse to pay $4.99 for a magazine that has all the limitations of digital content.

[Fritzly]

It might if I would be able to begin reading on the tv in my bedroom while I wake up, keep reading it on the mirror while I shave and also on the TV in the living while I eat my breakfast.

As for the price of the iPad I agree that it is expensive but do not forget that when MS launched the "Mira"/Smart Displays they costed arounf $1,000.
I mean I rememebr calculators costing hundreds of $.......

Just in case: I do not have one and I do not plan to buy one. I am the happy owner of a "REAL" Tablet computer, a convertible one, and I laugh at this latest leit motiv about these devices like iPad and the seem to dead HP one showed by Ballmer: they are not Tablet computers! Find a new name to identify them but do not confuse people.

[Jason Dunn]

...and the seem to dead HP one showed by Ballmer: they are not Tablet computers! Find a new name to identify them but do not confuse people.

They do have a new name: it's the HP slate. "Slate" is the new term for many of these types of machines...

[Sven Johannsen]

Slate was the generic term for a stylus style tablet that had no keyboard when they first came out. Typically they had USB or PS2 ports so you could attach a standard keyboard if you chose to. (Motion Computing) There were also so-called hybrids which were sold with an integral but detachable keyboard (HP TC1000), and convertibles where a keyboard was attached. The latter seems to be the style that had the most, though still shaky, traction. All used a pen like device with which you could write, either for OCR like recognition, or just e-ink. AFAIR, XP tablet edition didn't support touch (as in finger) screens. HP did that later, as well as pen/digitizer. The finger painting paradigm seemed to be an Apple thing, and for whatever reason, became the expectation for 'touch' devices. Too bad IMHO.

Not sure why Fritzly would say the HP device shown by Balmer is not a Tablet. It is IMHO exactly what a tablet should be. Understanding of course that it does indeed have a stylus like the TX/Tm series of HP convertiblesand the old timey TC1000.

For my money, if they would re-release the TC1000 with modern technology, processor, screen, memory, battery, with the associated reduction in weight, they'd have something.
Compaq Tablet PC TC1000 - North America/U.S. QuickSpecs (http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11429_na/11429_na.HTML)
There is actually an underground, grabbing up TC1100s (slightly newer) and loading Win7 with good results.