The iPad Arrives – World Keeps Turning

Michael Hedges May 31, 2010 Follow on Twitter

Racing past its competitors, Apple is respected as much if not more for marketing acumen than its technology. Last weeks coordinated international sales event for the iPad tablet thing predictably brought together emotional geeks ready to separate from their money. That it became a major news story speaks volumes.

The line at seven o’clock in front of the Rome Apple Store was estimated at five hundred. “Most are men,” wrote Il Tempo (May 29). “The few women present have ‘Sunday afternoon eyes,’ the same as when forced by husbands or boyfriends to watch football.”

At the Milan Apple Store, observed Il Giornale (May 29), it was high season for the fashionistas. The iPad has snob appeal, like so many of the toys in the Apple catalogue. It was a post-modern market event; people in line posting photos of themselves on Facebook being in line.

At the Apple Store near the Louvre in Paris about 300 French people were waiting for the opening bell. There was less rush at the Apple ‘premium reseller’ ICLG at Pompidou Centre. Only a few were lined up for the store opening at nine o’clock. But, reported La Tribune (May 29), all 25 iPads in stock were sold in one hour.

About 200 “mostly men and men with their sons” gathered at one Berlin Apple retailer, reported Berliner Kurier (May 28). There were only 20 in front of a Frankfurt shop. But, in Tokyo more than 1,200 deluged one store; hence, the ‘Apple triumph’ meme of the day from many news organizations.

Broadcasters and publishers rushed to meet the demand with new iPad apps. German television broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media dashed into the fray (May 28) with a free app for its news channel N24 HD, augmenting current news with video, photos and feature packages as well as Facebook and Twitter links.

Being free, the N24 HD iPad app won’t please publishers, praying – literally – for a miracle. Calling the iPad "what we were all waiting for," Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner remonstrated his fellow publishers to “sit down once a day and pray to thank Steve Jobs that he is saving the publishing industry.” Herr Döpfner can be excused his hyperbolics, commenting as he did on the American PBS network while on holiday in Florida. It was the sunshine.

Axel Springer, Germany’s biggest newspaper publisher, has iPad apps (and iPhone, too) for its Bild and Die Welt titles. The publisher has even launched an iPad magazine, The Iconist, adapted from Die Welt’s Sunday supplement Icon. It costs  € 3.99.

For the congenital early adopters of technology – often referred to as GEEKS – the iPad is a ‘must have’ simply because it’s there. They want to be first. They want games. They want Facebook. Apple has – once again – served them well.

For those who’ve heeded their father’s advice to never buy “serial number 001” the iPad is interesting, but not earth shattering. It’s the applications that make the sale. Critics, undaunted by the emotional crowds, asked what problem, exactly, does the iPad solve?  Reviewing iPad applications from magazine publishers, Telegraph (UK) tech writer Shane Richmond is “not convinced” and compares the available apps unfavorably with multimedia CD-ROMs from the 1990’s. German tech commentator Joachim Güntner, speaking on Deutschlandfunk (May 28), sees “nostalgia”.

“The iPad is still a gadget,” explained Ringier Group CEO Michael Ringier, interviewed by Le Figaro (May 27). “We may use it in a few years for business, but it certainly will not save the print media. Journalism is the only thing that can save print.” Ringier is a major media house in Switzerland with extensive holdings throughout the world. Ringier is rumored to be “looking at” French daily Le Monde.

Thinking more broadly, content quality trumps delivery device. Or does it? Apple’s iPod coupled with the iTunes online music retailer quickly marginalized jukebox music radio broadcasting. At the time, a range of music players and music download services were available. Apple put them together and, once certain issues with interoperability and copyright were worked out, the iPod became a media game changer.

Tablet-style devices weren’t an Apple invention. There is the Amazon Kindle. There's HP's Slate. The iPad differs significantly in that its reason for being goes beyond the e-reader for books and newspapers. The innovation is a tightly controlled developer environment. That includes both pricing and content. Anybody can develop a iPad application, just submit the description to Apple and, if approved, be prepared to pay a healthy piece of any revenue.

This level of control is off-putting to many – new media people, old media people, competition regulation people. The whinging has begun: Apple isn’t caring. Apple isn’t sharing. Apple’s making too much money.

At the end of the trading day Wednesday (May 26) – two days before the iPad hit stores outside the United States – Apple’s market capitalization, the total share value, eclipsed that of Microsoft.  Ten years ago, the company was nearly out of business. That was before iPod, iTunes, iPhone and now iPad.

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