Apple tablet back in the news
An offhand remark in a presentation by a New York Times editor has the much-prophesied tablet computer back in the news and connected once again to the news business.
Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, mentioned the Apple tablet (calling it the Apple “slate”) at a presentation to a digital group as a part of a Nieman Journalism Lab project, according to a ZDnet story. The Apple tablet has been garnering ink lately on the general subject of e-readers, although usually in combination with Amazon Kindle rumors, though there is a journalistic connection there too. Is the Apple tablet being seen as a Kindle killer?
Keller, in what was seemingly an insignificant remark, said, “I’m hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate or whatever comes after that.” Keller is obviously a newspaper executive that sees e-readers as one way to deliver the news and, perhaps more meaningfully, sees the iTablet as a part of the e-reader parade.
That is not so far-fetched. Amazon has been working hard for some time on the idea of delivering news via the Kindle. They have even strongly considered selling their e-reader in a larger form factor that would make it easier to read a newspaper on the device. Given the financial problems of the newspaper industry, the press has a big reason to be interested in those same things.
And that is where the iTablet comes in. Although it could be used as an e-reader, the Apple tablet will not be the one-trick pony that the Kindle is. It will deliver the ability to read books (including textbooks) and newspapers along with at least as much computing power as an iPhone, and almost certainly considerably more. It could easily be more than a combination of a Kindle and a netbook. That, plus the cachet and quality of Apple may well make it worth the $800 price tag being projected.
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