Apple iSlate Rumours (Apple Tablet)

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Apple's iSlate: The Kindle Killer

J.S. McDougall

Co-Founder of Catalyst Webworks
Posted: December 30, 2009 04:07 PM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index

"By releasing an e-reader so hopelessly tied to the paper, Amazon gave Apple an opening to provide something better. If the latest swirl of rumors is true and Apple plans to release a tablet computer, or iSlate, early next year, you can bet your life it will put the Kindle to shame when it comes to digital content delivery. Any e-ink device simply will not be able to compete. I'm not going to reveal any names, but I have it on very good authority, for example, that--unlike the Kindle--the new Apple tablet will, indeed, have a color screen. Might it also ... play video?! (Please pardon the sarcasm.)

Digital Book content

"Book publishers are feverishly searching for the best ways to pour their content into the new digital stream. And rightly so. I've argued here in the past that book publishers, as producers of a continuous stream of high-quality and edited content, are perfectly suited to capitalize on the new opportunities presented by the digital content revolution. Selling e-books has long been the most accepted method--and though I have my reservations--I wouldn't necessarily disagree. I would argue, however, that the best e-books are certainly not Kindle e-books.
"Book content should no longer be imprisoned by the limitations of paper. Digital books should include author interviews, instructional videos, pop-up definitions of esoteric terms, instant foreign translations, optional soundtracks, links to helpful web sites, and anything else publishers and authors can dream up to increase the value and effectiveness of their content."

10 Million Apple Tablets? A Glance Back for Perspective

The benchmark for a successful launch keeps changing, and

Apple's own record is mixed as we await the "iSlate" entry.

Harry McCracken, Technologizer Jan 2, 2010 12:40 pm

Apple rumor of the moment: Former Google, Microsoft, and Apple executive Kai-Fu Lee has blogged that he's heard Apple thinks it can

steve jobs apple tablet

. (I persist in putting quotes around "iSlate" since we don't know if that's the product's name, assuming there is a product at all.)
That ten-million tablet figure is merely a rumor, albeit one spread by a smart guy who may have excellent sources. It certainly sounds ambitious. But how ambitious is it? For the sake of comparison, I dug up some sales figures for other Apple products -- starting with the Apple I, and including both numbers reported by Apple and some third-party estimates. Here they are, after the jump.
Total sales of Apple I, 1976-1977: about 200
Apple II units sold, 1977-1982: 750,000
Apple II units sold, 1982: 300,000
Total Apple III units sold, 1980-1984: 65,000
Original 1984 Macs sold in first 74 days: 50,000
Original 1984 Macs sold in first year: 250,000
Macs sold, October-December 1993: one million
Macs sold, 1995: 4.7 million
iMacs sold in first 139 days: 800,000
iPod during first full year: 378,000
iPod at 5 1/2 years: 100 million
iPod at 8 years: 225 million
Total original iPhones sold: 6.1 million
iPhone at 46 weeks: six million
iPhone/iPod Touch at 20 months: 30 million
iPhone, July-September 2009: 7.4 million
Macs sold by Apple in fiscal year 2009: ten million

"The benchmark for successful sales keeps changing, of course: Back in 1982, selling 300,000 Apple II computers was an extraordinary achievement, considering that it was a pricey product in a category which most households and businesses hadn't yet adopted. And the fact that Apple only managed to sell 378,000 iPods in that gizmo's first year is explained by the fact that the first iPod only worked with Macs, not Windows PCs-more than 95 percent of computer owners couldn't have used an iPod no matter how much they craved one."

10 Technologies that Will Rock 2010

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by: Erick Schonfeld January 02, 2010 |

Now that the aughts are behind us, we can start the new decade with a bang. So many new technologies are ready to make a big impact this year. Some of them will be brand new, but many have been gestating and are now ready to hatch. If there is any theme here it is the mobile Web. As I think through the top ten technologies that will rock 2010, more than half of them are mobile. But those technologies are tied to advances in the overall Web as well.
Below is my list of the ten technologies that will leave the biggest marks on 2010:

1. The Tablet: It’s the most anticipated product of the year. The mythical tablet computer (which everyone seems to be working on). There are beautiful Android tablets, concept tablets, and, of course, the one tablet which could define the category, the Apple (AAPL) Tablet. Or iSlate or whatever it’s called. If Steve Jobs is not working on a tablet, he’d better come up with one because anything else will be a huge disappointment. Why do we need yet another computer in between a laptop and an iPhone? We won’t really know until we have it. But the answer lies in the fact that increasingly the Web is all you need. As all of our apps and data and social lives move to the Web, the Tablet is the incarnation of the Web in device form, stripped down to its essentials. It will also be a superior e-reader for digital books, newspapers, and magazines, and a portable Web TV.

Deconstructing the iTablet Rumor Mill

seekingalpha.com/
January 01, 2010 by

Apple Investor picture

Apple Investor
Blow You Away, Maybe
"Well, besides the size of the tablet, what cool thing can we expect from the all-things-iMaker? There’s the general speculation that the Apple tablet will run the iPhone OS, so it will immediately have access to 100s of thousands of apps. Well, that is if they’re compatible with the huge iPhone-like device. Some have said it might run iPhone apps in a window the same size as current apps, like widgets.
Image Credited to AppleInsider

"And what of text entry, can we expect the same experience as current iPhones, a super-sized chicklet keyboard? It’s possible that Apple has been working on a much more futuristic approach. According to AppleInsider, they uncovered a patent application filed by Apple in 2007. They derived the following from that patent:

"Using an “articulating frame,” the surface of such a device would create physical bumps or dots for the user to feel when it is in keyboard mode. Those surface features would retract and disappear when the device is not being used to type. It is detailed in an application entitled “Keystroke Tactility Arrangement on a Smooth Touch Surface.”

What Will it Do, Think Different?
"I don’t think we’re going to see a killer app that defines the Apple tablet. What I do think is that Apple will build a multi-media device that is so compelling, that it will make the Kindle look like a transistor radio. In my opinion, the new Apple iSlate, iTablet, iWhateva, will be the ultimate hand-held reader, in full color, with full multi-media capabilities, both input and output. It will display and take pictures from a high resolution 5 megapixel camera, capable of HD 1080p resolution video. Ars Technica recently reported that such a camera has been selected by Apple for the next generation iPhone. It would be perfect for the tablet.

The new tablet will likely be a portal to the iTunes Movie store. It has been reported by many sources that Apple is in negotiations with big movie studios trying to lure them away from Cable operators with attractive subscription services and lucrative licensing deals. There are reports from the Wall Street Journal that CBS and Disney are reportedly considering signing a deal."

Jobs to Unveil Apple Tablet Next Month , Ex-Google Exec Says

Owen Fletcher, IDG News Service Dec 31, 2009 12:40 am

"Steve Jobs plans to unveil Apple's much-hyped but still unconfirmed tablet device next month, and it will come with 3D graphics and a price tag below US$1000, according to former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee.
"Most surprising: Apple predicts production of nearly 10 million [units] in the first year!" Lee said in a post on a Chinese microblog service that cited information from a source he described as a knowledgeable friend. The tablet will look like a large iPhone and come with a 10.1-inch multitouch touchscreen, a virtual keyboard and support for videoconferencing and e-books, the post said."

E-book Piracy

E-Book Piracy: The Publishing Industry's Next Epic Saga?

Tom Spring, PC World

Thursday, December 24, 2009(12-24) 06:53 PST -- As e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle continue to rise, so follows the publishing industry's worst nightmare: e-book piracy. For years e-book piracy was the exclusive province of the determined few willing to ferret out mostly nerdy textbook titles from the Internet's dark alleys and read them on their PC. But publishers say that the problem is ballooning as e-readers grow in popularity and the appetite for mainstream e-books grows.

"We are now seeing large volumes of e-books being pirated on everything from file-sharing networks to Websites," says Ed McCoyd of the Association of American Publishers, a trade organization representing major U.S. book publishers. The year-to-year percentage growth of available e-book titles is unknown, McCoyd says. Other publishers, such as Hachette Book Group, say that e-book piracy has grown "exponentially" over the past year.
A review of e-books currently available for illicit download confirms that e-book piracy is no longer dominated by technical how-to e-books but includes best-selling authors Janet Evanovich, John Grisham, and James Patterson. PCWorld found that one-third of Publishers Weekly's 2009 top 15 best-selling fiction books were available for illicit download through a growing variety of book-swapping sites, file-sharing services, and peer-to-peer networks.
The availability of best sellers is just the start. PCWorld discovered virtual bookshelves stuffed with pirated e-book titles ranging from copyrighted popular fiction and nonfiction titles to college textbooks and how-to e-books. All of these titles are downloadable and ready for viewing on your e-reader of choice, be it the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, or Barnes & Noble Nook.

"We know e-book piracy is a problem, and we are taking the issue very seriously," says Paul Aiken, executive director of The Authors Guild, an advocacy group for writers. "We've seen the music and film industry deal with this, and it stands to reason we will grapple with it too." Aiken says that while he is concerned about the growth in the availability of e-book titles on the Internet, he is not convinced that the number of people who are actually downloading the digital files is increasing as rapidly.

Compared with music piracy, illicit e-books are not nearly as widespread or as easy to acquire. Pirates must be determined to track down specific e-book titles. Pirated e-book files (usually available as PDFs) can sometimes be poorly reproduced, and are sometimes made up of scanned page images--not text.
Publishers Stuck Between a Digital Rock and a Hard Place

Worries of piracy have kept many publishers and authors, most notably J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series, from embracing the e-book format. They fear that e-book files protected by digital rights management (DRM) technology could be hacked anyway. However, refusing to take advantage of the e-book format can sometimes backfire and drive piracy, says consumer technology analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.
For a relatively small amount of money, pirates can convert any hard-copy book into an unprotected text file, even if a legitimate electronic book is never created, Enderle says. "This fear of electronic piracy is actually fueling the piracy movement," he says.

That's what happened with Rowling's works. Even though Rowling's publisher, Scholastic Books, doesn't currently offer any Harry Potter titles in e-book format, hackers have scanned all of the books and turned them into PDF files that are viewable on any e-reader.

"If electronic books can't be had legitimately, others will step in and fill the need; and once a pirate industry is established, it probably won't go away easily," says Enderle. The best way for the publishing industry to combat piracy is to follow the music industry's lead and make more e-book titles available.
Publishers have been producing more digital editions for their books, and revenues are up. Wholesale trade in e-books in the United States for the first three quarters of 2009 ($110 million) is up threefold compared with 2008, according to the International Digital Publishing Forum.

DRM Is No E-Book Piracy Fix
While publishing e-books protected by DRM seems like a no-brainer solution to piracy, the idea has faced criticism from within the publishing industry and from consumers. First, publishers are weary of reports that the DRM technology used in the Kindle and the Sony Reader has been hacked, says Nick Bogaty, an expert in DRM technology for Adobe. Second, consumers are hesitant to buy digital books with inflexible DRM that ties an e-book to a limited number of e-readers.

Critics say that the two providers of DRM-protected e-books, Amazon and Adobe, are stunting the e-book industry's progress. For instance, Amazon's Kindle uses its own DRM-restricted AZW e-book format. People who purchase an e-book on their Kindle cannot transfer it for reading on another, competing e-book reader from a different company.
DRM issues get thornier when device makers, such as Amazon, start negotiating exclusive e-publishing rights for their product. Amazon signed a deal with best-selling business writer Stephen R. Covey to publish several of his books, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Principle-Centered Leadership, exclusively for the Kindle. The company has also negotiated exclusive rights for Kindle e-books from author Stephen King and for a biography of First Lady Michelle Obama.

The idea of exclusive e-book rights tied to devices seems as annoying as being allowed to play a particular new CD only on a certain company's CD players. But Ian Fried, the vice president of Amazon Kindle, has stated that Kindle consumers don't mind its DRM. That could change, however, as a predicted flood of new, rival e-readers hit the market in 2010, and Kindle owners think about jumping ship--only to discover that they can't take their e-books with them. Remember the backlash against DRM-protected content in Apple's iTunes store?
Bogaty points out that Adobe, whose DRM technology is used by Sony and Barnes & Noble, is yielding to critics who say that its antipiracy technology is too restrictive. Adobe is loosening the grip of its DRM, allowing users to share e-books with friends and to read books on up to 12 different devices (6 desktop and 6 handheld).

Author Marcia Layton Turner says she is less concerned about piracy and more interested in making her books available via the e-book format. Turner says the potential of new e-book revenue is reason enough to jump on the e-book bandwagon, despite the risk of piracy. "I'd rather sell twice as many books and lose a few sales due to stealing than to miss out on those additional sales altogether," Turner says.
And many other authors agree: The problem of piracy takes a backseat to the challenge of getting people to read books in the first place.

Original story - www.pcworld.com/article/185335
Copyright (c) 2009, IDG News Service. All rights reserved. IDG News Service is a trademark of International Data Group, Inc.

Now we have p-books

e-books and p-books will co-exist

Garrett Kiely, director of the University of Chicago Press says. “The ability to sell print and electronic editions side by side is crucial. We believe that e-books and p-books will co-exist rather than replace each other and this shopping experience finally lets them work together.”

The University of Chicago Press is offering about 1,000 titles through its site, with options for 30 to 180 day access as well as perpetual access.

The e-book shopping tool is free for members of the Chicago Distribution Center, parent organization of BiblioVault, and a number of university presses have started to use the enhanced option. A spokesperson said the tool will be offered to non-CDC publishers early in 2010 at a “reasonable” price.

-- Publishers Weekly, 12/22/2009 2:27:00 PM

Multimedia for books on the iPhone

Book Author interaction via the iPhone

Here is the first multimedia application for books:

Publisher working with Mobile Roadie to release apps for bestselling authors

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 12/21/2009 8:24:00 AM

"The Random House Publishing Group announced today it will launch free customized iPhone applications connecting bestselling authors to fans using mobile technology. It is working with iPhone app creation platform Mobile Roadie, using an author-focused variation of Mobile Roadie’s app creator that currently supports apps by musicians including Brad Paisley and Alice in Chains. Releasing today are apps for authors Steve Berry, Sophie Kinsella, and Karen Marie Moning.
"The apps will

• let fans preview books,
• access bonus content,
• interact with other fans,
• check upcoming author appearances,
• listen to audiobook clips, and
• watch author videos and book trailers.

Matt Schwartz, director of digital strategy for the Random House Publishing Group, said, “Mobile Roadie’s powerful and flexible technology offers a great opportunity for readers to access a world of content about their favorite authors instantaneously, wherever they are.”

Digital technologies have enormous appeal

Reidy: Industry at a "Defining Moment"

By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 12/18/2009 7:32:00 AM

In her annual letter to employees, Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy observed that both S&S and the publishing industry “are at a defining moment,” and minced no words is saying the challenges faced in 2009 will continue into the new year and that in 2010 “we have every reason to expect that this coming year will bring its own set of difficulties for us to face.”

"S&S had its share of accomplishments including 164 New York Times bestsellers, a number of award-winning titles and innovations in the digital area. Digital technologies, Reidy noted “have enormous appeal, be it prospects for more efficient distribution, the ability to capture a sale on a 24/7/365 basis, new and intriguing ways to find consumers and engage them with our books and authors, and new formats, hybrids, and business models.”

Reidy added however, that digital opportunities are not without risk. “We must do everything in our power to uphold the value of our content against the downward pressures exerted by the marketplace and the perception that “digital” means “cheap.” We must work to defend the livelihoods of our authors at a time when instantaneous file transfer makes piracy easier than ever, and in a world in which many consider copyright irrelevant,” Reidy said.

“These challenges will play out on all fronts in our business, from our interaction with authors and customers to how we acquire, produce, market, and distribute our books, and sometimes subjected to the scrutiny of the media and the blogosphere. The importance of making the right decisions has never been greater, and I have every confidence that we will continue to employ our publishing expertise and culture of innovation to keep Simon & Schuster on the path to a prosperous future in a new age of publishing.”

With consumers “overwhelmed by an onslaught of information and media, and faced with a bewildering array of possibilities for purchasing books,” Reidy said the road ahead for publishers of all kinds will be difficult “and the rate of change greater than at any time in history.” But she noted, “I am confident that the culture we have created at Simon & Schuster makes us ideally suited to meet the challenges we face. We have always prided ourselves on the expertise with which we acquire and publish the books that readers want; on a flexible approach that allows us to quickly adapt to current conditions; on the speed with which we are able to bring our books to market; on our willingness to do the right thing for our business no matter how difficult.”

In a review of the past year, Reidy noted that the bookselling marketplace “has been truly lackluster, and year-on-year sales at most of our major customers have declined significantly. Books from many of our continuing authors, as well as our higher-margin backlist, are selling at levels well below their peak.” And although S&S had solid gains in its conservative and teen markets and strong performances in the U.K. and Canada, “the lower sales volume attributable to the soft marketplace was impossible for us to overcome.”

Reidy said she was “heartened” by the seriousness in which S&S employees took to the task of helping the company run a lean operation in difficult economic times.

Digital book rights different from print rights

From Quill & Quire blog

War over e-books heats up

December 16, 2009 | 3:24 PM | By Scott MacDonald

Since the vast majority of old author contracts contain no stipulations about e-book rights, authors and agents are awakening to the possibility of shopping those rights to firms other than the ones that publish the hard copies. Simon & Schuster found this out the hard way earlier this week when one of its authors, Stephen Covey, signed a deal with Amazon for exclusive digital rights to his perennial bestseller //The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People//. The move, which essentially cuts publishers out of the process altogether, is likely to catch on with a lot of other big-name authors if it goes unchallenged.
Clearly alarmed by what’s been happening, Random House took the ill-advised move of informing agents and authors that it retains exclusive digital rights to the vast majority of its backlist titles – a highly debatable assertion, and one that came off more like a threat than a friendly reminder.
According to a report in the //Guardian// today, however, Random House may not have a leg to stand on. The article points out that in 2002 Random House failed in an attempt to block e-book company RosettaBooks from selling digital versions of several of its backlist titles:

The ruling, upheld on appeal, found that copyright for books that were written before digital publishing existed remained with the author.
Arthur Klebanoff, head of RosettaBooks, secured Covey’s exclusive deal this week with Amazon. He said: “We are very clear about this, the author controls the rights unless it is specified otherwise, and that was settled by the courts years ago.”
Simon & Schuster, which took a knock over the Covey deal, was taking a softer stance than Random House but not accepting defeat. Adam Rothberg, a spokesman, would not comment on Covey specifically, but said in general terms it was the company’s “intention to publish the electronic editions to our backlist titles.”

Books to become immersive multimedia experience

At PW-Moderated E-Book Session, Questions Rise for One Panelist, Revenues Rise for Another

by Andrew Richard Albanese -- Publishers Weekly, 12/17/2009 11:47:00 AM "You have to hand it to NYU journalism professor, Viral Loop author and Fast Company contributing writer Adam L. Penenberg—he tells it like it is. While most of the sessions during the first day of the Mediabistro eBook Summit focused on where book publishers will fit in an increasingly digital world, on day two, Penenberg, a self-proclaimed “midlist author,” told the audience that after his experience writing three books, he’s considering whether to even use a publisher for his next project, which, he said, would seek to redefine the book— from “stagnant text” into a more immersive multimedia experience.

"Penenberg stressed that his current publisher, Hyperion, was the best he’s worked with so far. Yet after bidding in the high six figures for Viral Loop, the company budgeted little in the way of marketing: modest co-op purchases in Barnes & Noble, an outside publicist for a limited time, no book tour. While the book received very positive reviews and lots of media attention, much of it was generated by the author and focused on a Facebook application that Penenberg paid for himself—an app that had an astonishing 13% conversion rate (that is, the number of downloaders who clicked on the ad actually went through to buy the book).

"While publishers may be interested in how to better deploy virality and social media like apps to sell books, Penenberg suggested that most publishers are simply passing that burden directly on to authors and he questioned whether the big houses had the institutional desire to do what was really necessary “to completely reimagine the book.” Converting print pages to web pages will not capture the attention of future generations (characterized by his “six year-old ‘on-demand’ child," he told the audience.) Penenberg saw current e-book efforts as little more than stopgaps, stressing that book must become multimedia, and offer future readers far richer experiences than mere text on a page or screen.

"Penenberg was joined by Oxford University Press’ Evan Scnhittman, who shared with audience members how some publishers are doing just that. He detailed his work with one of the world’s most venerable brands— Oxford Dictionaries —and a savvy non-exclusive “viral” licensing scheme it pioneered in Japan. Rather than work with one exclusive distributor, Schnittman noted, OUP uses a “non-exclusive and open approach” in offering the content in the Japanese market. Any party can license an embed OUP content. The result? Total market dominance for OUP dictionaries in Japan, and a steady income stream for the publisher.

"Indeed, Oxford has been one of the most innovative and aggressive publishing companies in the digital realm, and its experience stood as a prime example of how breaking content from between book covers and serving it to an ever-growing digital market translates into growth. In the Q&A period, one questioner noted how nonfiction and scholarly materials were suited to this kind of use, but questioned how this would extend to fiction. Schnittman said there were possibilities, but acknowledged he was unclear about the underlying premise of the question: the future of "immersive" reading.

"Certainly, the second day of the Mediabistro E-Book summit seemed more challenging than the first. After his talk, Penenberg, for example, was shouted down by a freelance publicist in the back of the theater who claimed that publishers were still putting authors on the road for book tours—with great results. “I know a lot of authors,” Penenberg responded, as the panel broke up. “None of them have done authors tours.” At the following session, meanwhile, moderator Dan Costa from PC Magazine asked Random House’s Matt Shatz what writers must do to survive: “Write Code,” Shatz replied. And ending the event, New School professor Douglas Rushkoff, author of Life, Inc. captured the uneasy essence of the two days of discussions: “It’s not all over,” he said. “But it’s all over for some of us.”