What is iPad? The best way to experience the web, email, photos, and video. Hands down All of the built-in apps on iPad were designed from the ground up to take advantage of the large Multi-Touch screen and advanced capabilities of iPad. And they work in any orientation. So you can do things with these apps that you can’t do on any other device. (www.applecom/ipad/features). The iPad is a tablet computer designed and marketed by Apple for Internet browsing, media consumption, gaming, and light content creation. Unlike many older tablets, it uses fingertips for input instead of a stylus. Released in April 2010, it established a new class of devices between smartphones and laptops As of May 2010 Apple has sold 1 million units (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ipad)

The publishers see iPad as a saviour since the magazines/newspapers are declining. People gradually lost interest to read paper medium these days (apart from certain occasions), they more like the idea of gadgets (not only the speciality for the tech geeks), they want to be exposed to everything all the time, in a more controlling way. Iphone is too small for the publishers to migrate everything on it, eye-sore. So here is the iPad, perfect size for people to read the news/content, whatever from the larger screen. Problem solved everybody happy. Hang on, what have changed in the subscription system? I haven’t heard any Australian publishers intending to adopt iPad yet, are they still hesitating or just I am not that informative? How to attract people subscribe the magazine since they need to have an iPad first? Not cheap though, haven’t launched in Australia market yet. But I believe the earlier the publisher moves, the better change they will win in the coming battle. Why not give the iPad for free if consumers subscribe for the one-year e-magazine? ^_^

At the same time, the iPad offers a lot of opportunities for advertisers, in terms of engagement, PR, and buzz. Before it hit the market, some friends around me already screamed of purchasing them once the shop is open…we laughed at these enthusiastic who will follow each step of Apple, but the iPad did offers much more than iPhone. The larger screen allows for a much richer and broader user experience. When developing ads for the iPad, marketers need to think less about impressions and clicks and more about engaging consumers through video, interactive content, and location aware features. Advertisers should consider deep integration into content, such as product integration into videos and video games. Marketers could also develop interactive catalogs or virtual store assistants to help consumers find products more easily (adage.com).

Can’t wait for iPad to come to down under! Game on!