Just six months ago I challenged you with this marketing conundrum: “Who can foresee the reading habits of today’s ten-year-old, ten years from now?”
There were four major competitors: Amazon had just introduced its new, more powerful DX Kindle Reader. Barnes & Noble launched their electronic bookshop with more than 700,000 titles linked to “Nook” their new reading device. Google enabled publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers. And Apple’s innovative team was huddled on the sidelines.
All four know that an effective resolution to this conundrum could radically change communications, especially the publishing industry: books, magazines and newspaper.s
A November 2009 DisplaySearch report projected eBook shipments will grow from one million units in 2008 to more than 75 million units in 2018 with a value of some $3.8 billion. Forrester Research estimated that three million eReaders were sold in the United States during 2009 and forecast 2010 eReader sales will double to six million.
Two eReaders lead the field: Kindle and the Sony PRS-505. On December 29, 2009, Amazon reported, “On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books.”
My take is that the eReader market is waiting for a “killer” product. I’ve monitored customer reviews for both products. While many users like their choice, I’ve yet to read a review that conveys real passion. So if a really great eReader appears, the market could explode forming new reading habits.
Apple is expected to launch a state-of-the-art solution, a touch-screen device known as the iSlate on Tuesday, January 26. Specific details are carefully kept under wraps. But leaks generate speculation. And, industry expectations for the iSlate are running high
It’s claimed iSlate is much more than an effective eReader. Some say iSlate will look like a ten-inch cross between an iPhone and a laptop computer. Expectations are it will be used for communications as well as entertainment, downloading music, books and films. Analysts think it will be set up to handle newspaper and television subscriptions through a wireless connection
Some pundits go so far as to predict it could transform the way we use computers. Others say iSlate may signal the end of the keyboard-and-mouse system used by millions.
Technology writer MG Siegler on the TechCrunch blog wrote, “Earlier this decade, the iPod changed the way people listen to music, forcing the music industry to change radically. The iPhone, from 2007, had a similar impact on telecommunications, and introduced applications to the mainstream.If the iSlate tablet succeeds it will likely redefine the role of computing in our lives just as the iPhone has. That's exciting!
A successful redefinition will create an exciting challenge for print publishers. They will monetize Internet value in a way that enables creation of dazzling new eMedia.
Authors will learn new ways of communicating. Until now, they assumed that books are read from a printed page where content is static and page-based. Not so in the electronic world. New dynamic writing tools – animation, audio and video – will create a more powerful eBook model. That’s exciting, too.
Consider iPod plus iPhone; each has successfully established a leadership position, changing an industry’s direction. Now, add iSlate. If successful, Apple will have a firm hold upon the handheld communications market. That could easily transform the way we use computers and add many new tools for the bootstrap marketer.
