bgrier
on
Apple is bundling iTunes and iBooks with the iPad. Both are closed online stores where you purchase your media, to be consumed (viewed, listened to, read) while using the device.
It's more the partnerships and agreements that Apple mentioned for iBooks, for example:
In this case, Apple has just fired a shot at all the other eBook vendors -- by opening their own store, bypassing the infrastructure that's been built up by these online retailers. Apple takes their cut, and the publisher retains the rest.
It's the same model Apple uses in the iTunes store for music and apps...which has me thinking, would it be possible for small press publishers to have their eZines and monthly pubs available through iBooks. One of many questions yet to be answered.
And this is kinda cool. Consider if you could read your Oprah magazine, without having to deal with the paper copy when you're done with it. Or your favourite Marvel (or DC) comic. The device is big enough to do proper justice to the art.
And maybe using the iBooks store, you simply have a prepaid subscription, and the next issues are available without a trip to the comic shop. Oh, the game just changed for the comic shop owner, and the local magazine vendor.
So really, the iPad is not about the hardware, it's about what the hardware enables: a new way to buy and consume media that wasn't easily available to us with the existing technology.
