Is the iPad a Media Savior or Killer?
While the iPad is officially on sale, it hasn't reached Australian shores yet and we can keenly anticipate its arrival in coming months. With more than 300,000 sales and over a million app downloads on the first day of release, it has been officially deemed a success by the Apple Marketing Team.
But can it solve the floundering interface problems that face the media as we know it? Will it be the engaging tool, espoused by Steve Jobs himself as the "Game Changer?" Or, is it just another channel through which the traditional media will be weakened and eventually broken?
Bring on the battle I say.
The next five years are set to rival the late 1990s in terms of technological lifestyle and trend changes in my opinion. New touchscreen tools are just the beginning, but will be a pivotal move in the convenience market of communications and ultimately, marketing of every kind.
We must bear in mind that it won't be Apple that changes the face of the traditional media; they are just a delivery channel that is far more convenient for communicating the written word.
The fact is, the media must change and adapt or die as happens in so many industries when revolution takes hold. We only need to look at the impact and adaptability of the fee-for-service stockbroking market before Internet broking became a reality to see a decimated market landscape where traditional players were destroyed by new channels of service delivery allowing new market entrants and great opportunity.
Apple has become well known for its incredible marketing capability, going where so many companies rarely dare — stepping into the forefront time and time again to "lead" a market, creating categories, changing habits, and guiding mindsets.
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