The iPad—now, with marketing!

Michael Jensen | 03/12/2010

Now that Apple is launching promotional marketing for the iPad, not merely getting the hundreds of millions of dollars of free advertising generated by its well-honed media hype system, I’m changing my tune a bit—on the iPad specifically, and on the iPad within the tablet arena.

Apple’s 25-second ad, first shown during the Oscar broadcast (http://www.apple.com/ipad/gallery/#hardware06) made me want the iPad in a way that Steve Jobs, and the breathless reportage of the much-vaunted announcement, simply didn’t. The ad is fabulous propaganda, which Apple does better than anyone.

The other tablet manufacturers, interface providers, and business-model participants will have some real difficulty competing with an integrated device such as the iPad, but even more, will have trouble competing on desirability. What the ad communicated was the seeming consistency, as well as the breadth, of its information-engagement touchscreen interface.

Another tablet may have a quality Web browsing experience, but won’t have the iBookstore; another tablet may have a great touchscreen experience, but won’t have the ability to have an App store; another tablet may have Google Book Search built-in, but won’t have Mac-like email and scheduling.

The integrated package means that we, as publishers, will need to take the iPad and iBookstore very seriously (as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others will or should).

I suspect, as Apple rolls out its iPad in the States and in Canada (in April, they promise), that the iBookstore market, by Q4 2010, will be a growing, vibrant one. If the iPhone is any indication, iPad owners will be comparing the books they have on their iBookshelf, and buying books from the iBookstore just to have them.

Please note: Apple’s iBookstore will only accept ebooks in .epub format, not PDF—so now is a good time to be initiating your .epub experiments.

Comments [0]

RSS Feed