I don’t underestimate Apple’s ability to create unprecedented stuff, and to make it much better than anyone imagined. Yet for all the breathlessness about the supposed Apple tablet, no one seems to be asking the right questions.
First, what problem is it trying to solve? We know what problems laptops and smartphones solve. What’s the tablet solving?
Is it a “third” device? The first device that you are willing to carry is your mobile phone; the second is your laptop. If the tablet replaces neither of these things, will you carry around a third device?
Will it leave the house? Are you going to walk around the mall with this thing?
Given these questions…
We can assume that its main purpose is not as a communication device. Video conferencing and Facebook are not why you buy it. (At home, your computer does a better job. Outside, your iPhone is more handy.)
It will also not be a laptop replacement. You won’t do spreadsheets or compose presentations on it. (It will do those things, you wouldn’t buy it for that reason. Your laptop does a better job.)
You won’t kick back and watch a movie on this thing. (Again, you could, but your TV does a better job of it.)
That leaves us with one killer app: publications.
You are already carrying one or more of those (book, magazine, newspaper), so this obviates the third-device problem. It might leave the house, but not all the time. And the problem it’s trying to solve is that paper sucks.
Paper is not searchable or updatable and does not integrate with other media. And it takes up space. Paper is, however, very readable, portable and user-friendly, and for those reasons, it is still a mainstream medium.
This implies, then, that the tablet must be a Kindle on steroids: publications, yes, but with interactivity and apps that enhance the reading experience enough that people will give up paper. Which brings us to…
Will the tablet have e-reader software on it? It seems, given the above, that it obviously must. But it can’t be one-size-fits-all, since publications will want to differentiate – if they are to survive, the medium itself must evolve. Fitting into a generic template won’t do.
So the e-reader software will be more of a platform than an app, not unlike a highly purpose-built web browser.
Publications will be responsible for authoring their “tablet editions” in the same way that they have to author their web sites. The platform will offer rich fundamentals (typography, images, audio & video, navigation, subscriptions, DRM) but the content providers will develop the user experience. Publications will compete on both functionality and content.
So the sales pitch in January will be: it’s not just a device, it’s the new publisher’s platform.
Matt,
Thanks for commenting on my BusinessWeek column — and you raise additional excellent points. One issue I did not dig into, but worth watching, is exactly your point on "Kindle on steroids." Apple has made a lot of money by moving behind computers into the music business via the iPod-iTunes connection. Why couldn’t it do the same with publishing? Perhaps the tablet is a ploy to build a publishing content distribution channel; after all, in this day of the Internet, we still spend the majority of our time reading print words on screens.
But the other point I tried to raise is our society still does not have a useful tool for portable, two-way video. Sure, cell phones might do this in the U.S. eventually (just as they now do in the Europe), but the screens are tiny. Laptops are unwieldy. A glass tablet that makes two-way video as easy as looking in the mirror could be the device that makes it all really work.
I know my column sounded a bit fanboyish, but it is fun to play out the scenario. The world doesn’t have interactive magazines, e-readers still stink and look like medical devices — so my bet is Apple breaks through by making the tablet finally cool. We’ll see.
Thanks.
Ben Kunz
Director, Strategic Planning
Mediassociates
Cheers Ben, I liked your column. I don’t quite buy the video scenario just yet, if only because of the form factor — a video camera needs to be mounted. I don’t see people holding the tablet out in front of them for the purpose.
Then again, if the tablet becomes the "kitchen computer", sitting on a dock, the video thing might work… a killer cookbook with Alton Brown talking you through it.
Well, sure, the iSlate (or whatever) will clearly compete directly with the Kindle, Nook, Sony reader, etc. And I would certainly bet that Apple will leverage the iTunes store functionality for fulfillment. But that is not all this thing could/should be.
All three of your questions at the top question whether the thing will be a viable product — will people buy and use it? While it is a third device that offers a lot of functionality already existing in one of its other products, when has apple been worried about encouraging the consumer to purchase the same product twice? Three times? How many folks have multiple ipods lying around? How many had to pay huge penalties with their current carrier when they decided they had to have a iphone — and then these same folks buy a 3GS a year later?? I mean, this is what Apple does really well. All the tablet needs to do is offer a bit more or provide a better user experience for things folks already do on laptops and cell phones. Like:
1. Watching video (movies, youtube, tv, etc). Ever tried to watch anything on an iphone (sling media thinks you should) or on your laptop in a cramped space. Breaking out a laptop on a plane is bad enough but how about a bus or rail car? While I have seen less than a dozen folks try and break out a laptop on the bus in the last 5 years, I think we are all seeing Kindles pop up everywhere. Iphones can play video but a 4 inch screen is not going to cut it for serious viewing. Offer a device with the same form factor as a kindle that plays movies and other video offered through something like the itunes store and I think you offer a value proposition not many other companies can offer.
2. Kill the ipod…again. This thing will play music just like an ipod, iphone, laptop — and likely have a really nice itunes interface.
3. Play games. The iphone proved it is a great gaming platform, why can’t a tablet offer the same or similar?
4. Browse. It will likely offer a better browsing experience on the go than a laptop or iphone could offer. I try to browse on my iphone all the time and secretly HATE it.
Of course folks will also buy this thing because of all the hype from the press and bloggers
. It is apple after all.
I have been recently thinking about what it probably *isn’t*. And I am thinking it probably will not play in the E Ink space or try to compete head-to-head on battery life with products like the Kindle. Apple is about beautiful hardware with intuitive UI — not beating records on battery life (I mean, who makes "battery life" the focus of product reviews anyway?). So, expect to plug it in…a lot.
Not sure I’ll buy it but I’ll play with yours Matty! Or maybe Joe’s.