Apple starts iPad campaign at Oscars

The Apple iPad made its commercial debut at the Oscars last night, guaranteeing a big audience for the first of what is almost certain to be a large number of iPad ads leading up to the release of the Apple tablet computer.

If people had thought about it, no one should have been very surprised when a commercial for the Apple iPad tablet computer appeared during a break from the Oscar ceremonies Sunday night. As it was, it is unlikely that many watchers had considered in advance that they might see the vanguard of Apple’s advertising campaign for the iPad. Therefore, there was a lot of surprise surrounding this first ad, which featured the ease of use and versatility of the iPad. There are a lot of capabilities to showcase and Apple did not miss many of them. It has a big investment to recoup.

The 30-second spot runs the gamut from photo albums to e-books, with stops along the way to show us how much more useful the size of the iPad makes it as an Internet device, featuring the iTunes, the iBook Store, Apple maps, expanded email, movies on the larger screen, and of course the Apple’s Safari browser. The Cupertino electronic wizards also fit in a look at their iWork’s Pages app, the new page layout and word processing app that is entirely fresh for the iPad. It’s a very fast-paced piece of advertising, perfect for the MTV generation, and can be viewed here.

Despite all of the hype and consumer interest in the iPad, it is difficult to forget that this tablet computer paradigm has been tried before and failed, even with Apple as a player. That has to be in the back of the best minds in Cupertino, so they will want to leave little to chance. We will almost certainly see this advertisement and others like it many times both before and after the launch of the iPad, which will be a lengthy process since the Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi plus 3G models are coming out a month apart. So get used to these ads. Apple has a lot riding on the success of the iPad, as does the entire publishing industry.

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