Lingering rumors to the contrary, our resident fortune teller insists that the next technological revolution from Apple - the iPad - is literally just around the corner. We'd tend not to believe her, but we've learned that she's not alone. Both the MacRumors website and the Examiner have (also) reported that the Apple iPad without 3G will be on sale at 6:00 pm on Friday 26th March.
Analysts have predicted that Apple will ship 10.5 million iPads this year alone. According to Apple's website, the company will begin pricing their newest tech at $499, with the top-priced model going for a cool $829; 3G enabled models will set you back another $130. Like the recent and rather dramatic rise in the popularity of netbooks to satisfy the computing needs of many users who no longer require the capabilities of a desktop computing system, the iPad-lead 'Tablet Revolution' will undoubtedly change the Personal Computing landscape. And, like a bigger, stronger if not older brother, Apple's iPad will not only follow in the footsteps of the iPhone, the device credited with overlapping the PC and mobile phone industries, it and its kind will very likely - and quickly- surpass its smaller sibling.
Like a technological Tunguska, the coming iPad / Tablet event will dramatically change the ecosystems of the PC and mobile phone worlds. Suffice it to say, they won't be the only ones. Apple Insider reported earlier that iPad's commercial campaign is expected to begin March 15th, with the emphasis being on the iPad's e-book capabilities. E-readers, such as market-leader Amazon.com's Kindle, Sony's digital Reader, and the Barnes & Noble Nook, have been hot commodities as recently as last Christmas; however, even as the e-Reader industry announced just yesterday that color capabilities, among many other improvements and 40 new models to come this year, Kindle and co. seem woefully outmoded - and far less sexy - than vastly superior iPad tablet. abbracadabbling has developed a mathematical equation to quantify and qualify exactly why iPad will dominate and quite possibly destroy the e-Reader marketplace:
Although the situation for Kindle and kin doesn't look good at this juncture, we didn't want to jump to any hasty conclusions, either. Three of us independently checked our formula (using our respective Mac Pro's, we should add), yet the answers yielded bore remarkable similarity. We sum up our conclusion like so:
For a more in-depth comparison of iPad and Kindle, hop on over to Computer World HERE.
For such a new technology, e-Readers have gone from being last Christmas' new hotness to today's old has-been in less than the blink of an eye. (If you're wondering exactly how fast the blink of an eye actually is, there's an app for that.) Although Sony introduced a very early digital reading device in 2004, e-Reader tech didn't really get going or get noticed until Amazon.com's Kindle hit in 2007. Three years later, very unexpectedly, it's nearly outmoded. What other technologies and industries will also be effected, altered, otherwise drastically changed, revolutionized, or at worst, completely outmoded by the advent of Tablet?
For the comics industry, a business built upon the foundation of the monthly published pamphlet-style comic book magazine, that is the One Billion Dollar Question. As the era of motion comics, digital comics, and web comics has already dawned, and as the consumer base of the monthly comic book remains small preventing negligible sales growth, the possibility of e-Comics supplanting traditional comic books is a very real possibility. Some have already predicted that the Tablet is also the harbinger for the end of the traditional comics industry distribution and sales model, the Direct Market.
For the comics industry, a business built upon the foundation of the monthly published pamphlet-style comic book magazine, that is the One Billion Dollar Question. As the era of motion comics, digital comics, and web comics has already dawned, and as the consumer base of the monthly comic book remains small preventing negligible sales growth, the possibility of e-Comics supplanting traditional comic books is a very real possibility. Some have already predicted that the Tablet is also the harbinger for the end of the traditional comics industry distribution and sales model, the Direct Market.
abbracadabbling will be taking an in-depth look at the possible changes coming to comics because of emerging technologies like the iPad over the next few weeks. We'll also be taking a better look at how the internet and digital technologies - from digital comics in general to devices such as the Longbox Digital comics platform - have already affected comics present -- and future. Keep it here, dabblers!
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