Drewbot

As always, the best recap of Apple’s new device comes from Joel Johnson:

If there’s anything that you can take home from today’s announcement of the iPad it’s this: from here on out the battle between physical keyboards and touchscreen ones has moved beyond smartphones and into every other area of computing. Get ready to hear someone say “I touchtype just fine on a soft keyboard on my PC” very soon.

I strongly agree.

Further, my big takeaway from all things iPad is this: whether or not the iPad succeeds, what we saw today is where content is heading.

Right now, the iPad is still an early adopter device: many people want it, but no one needs it. However: there is no denying that the new form of content born today is a valid solution to many of the problems plaguing media companies. Dated companies like Harper Collins, Penguin, and the NYTs, who have continually been the butt of jokes during this media sea-change, look fighting fit on this tablet. And unlike Amazon, Apple has proven that their digital goods are dependable. The conversation about who “owns” content when you buy it from Amazon is ongoing. Yet, iTunes accounts for more than half of music revenues. People will not hesitate to buy a digital book from Apple.

In fact, this may be Apple’s greatest talent: they create reliable, comfortable, easy to use experiences for digital content, reducing all hesitations people might have as they switch from the physical to the digital.

I’m don’t agree current need for a device that exists between the mobile and the PC. However, I strongly agree that said space is a proving ground for future content: the goal of developing content for the space between mobile and PCs is to develop content that works on both mobile and PCs, across the entire digital device spectrum. So wether or not the tablet is a hit, the big deal is that the NYT et al have now created divisions to contextualize their content across the entire digital spectrum, with the tablet as a beachhead.