How the iPad will fit into your online content strategy?

By David Eedle |

It’s time to consider how the iPad will fit into your online content strategy. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or the outer rings of Venus, you could hardly not know that Apple has released their tablet computer the iPad.

I am a complete convert. I’m one of the lucky Australian’s who travel to the USA on a reasonably regular basis so I picked up mine in San Francisco a few weeks ago, giving me time now to try the device and explore how it fits into my professional and personal life.

I know we’ve been looking forward to a paperless world since the first personal computers arrived on the scene several decades ago. The opposite is of course the reality – all we’ve done is invent ever increasingly efficient methods to spit yet more reams of dead tree out of ever faster printers and copiers.

Over the past year or two I have been making a concerted effort to reduce the amount of paper on my desk. My adoption of Evernote last year has substantially helped, I now keep all my work notes, documents and other information in this marvellous organiser.

And now with my iPad purchase I’m rallying the paperless troops once more. I’m deliberately not taking a notebook or work papers to meetings. I have everything already in Evernote, and then take notes directly into my iPad during the meeting – which by default has made me the minute taker. Everyone seems quite impressed as I hit the email button at the conclusion of the meeting and send them my notes.

The Australian's iPad app has sold 4,500 so far.

The Australian's iPad app has sold 4,500 copies so far.

I have heard criticism of the iPad keyboard – Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer last week claimed the iPad was “a different form factor PC”. “A guy tried to take notes on one in a meeting with me yesterday – that was fun,” he said. “The meeting didn’t go very fast.”

I’m sorry Steve, you might be vastly richer than I, but you’re just plain wrong. Maybe it’s just a case of being pissed off that Microsoft, despite playing with tablet operating software versions of Windows never truly created a ground-shifting device. Maybe the projected 10 million iPad sales are ramming home to him the missed business opportunity.

My take on the iPad is two-fold:

The iPad represents a whole new class of content creation opportunity. It’s easy to use in that particular Apple way (by which I mean, it’s Apple’s way or the highway). There are a myriad of apps already available to help you draw, write, paint, mash up and compose content. Without having to cart around a laptop, and with the 3G service, anywhere at anytime.
The iPad represents a whole new class of content delivery opportunity. Oh we’ve done the whole ‘newspapers are dying dinosaurs’ thing, the reality without question is that there will always be printed publications. But the general malaise affecting the old-style news print models will continue as more people choose to source their news and opinion through alternative channels.

The smart publishers are jumping on board the iPad wagon, hoping to ride the coattails. And early mover status probably isn’t a bad thing. It gives you chance to explore models, try variations and consider possibilities whilst the audience is still relatively small, and still learning itself.

I’ve tried a number of ‘news’ apps on my iPad including:

The Australian – I think they took a look at the Wall Street Journal when it comes to layout and functionality. But it does the job, signing up was quick and easy, the interface is fine.
Wall Street Journal – an ‘early adopter’, they were featured in Steve Jobs’ iPad launch speech earlier this year. Their app is comprehensive and subscription based beyond an initial free period. I find it slightly tedious having to wait for the downloads to occur, but other than that it works well. They’ve sold 10,000 apps on a $US18 a month subscription.
Financial Times – it’s a great app, although given their financial markets focus, not so relevant to my daily life. They’ve gone for a similar layout as the WSJ, but with a more fluid scrolling screen, whereas the WSJ (and the Australian) try and contain each page to the dimensions of the iPad screen.
Wired Magazine – the leading light, their iPad version of the magazine is a complete delight, audio and video is embedded, the whole magazine layout and content has been re-purposed whilst retaining the distinctive Wire design.
BBC – basically a video clip app, allowing you to watch news videos across a range of topics and regions. They don’t update all the time (although you can listen to the BBC world service radio streaming), there are only a few videos in each category. But it’s a slick and effective content delivery mechanism that will improve as they devote more resource to populating the content.

An honourable mention to the Guardian Eyewitness app – not strictly a news application, rather it delivers a single photo each day to your iPad. But what a photo! It’s especially selected as being the particularly thought provoking image of the day from the Guardian’s extensive photo journalism resources.

And a raspberry, well raspberry in waiting anyway, to my home town’s own The Age. I have The Age’s app because it appeared on the app store for a few hours a week or so ago. It’s since disappeared, apparently it was only made available for a short time so the company’s managers and executives could give it a try. I sincerely hope the reason it hasn’t officially been released is because they are working their little geeky butts off completely rewriting the app. It’s woeful. It looks like they simply replicated their iPhone application, right down to the web-based sign up pages. It’s clunky, completely counter-intuitive, and a mess. There, does that make my views plain?

It’s also worth taking a look at some of the RSS feed readers, because several of them aim to mimic the newspaper experience, and a couple do a great job, check out Early Edition or for a lighter, faster experience try Sources.

The iPad represents a brave new world for content creators and consumers. The iPad’s ability to meld a true multi-media experience, in a device that can be used anywhere, combined with its content creation capability, will define a new marketplace, and change others.

Finally, if you were sceptical of the iPad’s ability to do anything, anywhere, I think news that dolphins are using iPads to communicate with humans may force you over from the dark side to see the iPad light.

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