This is part 2 of the summary of Apple Tablet news. In this report I’m going to discuss the possible pricing of the product. I’m also going to talk about the New York Times who’s developing an application for the tablet computer. And there’s some news about book publishers as well.
Apparently Apple has been very aggressive in discussion with publishers about bringing content to Apple’s latest creation. The tablet’s software is being touted by Apple as a game changer for the e-reader market. They will attack the Kindle directly and offer publishers greater control over content and pricing.
It seems Apple has not made any deals with publishers so far, but is expected to have general agreements with the biggest publishers by Wednesday. Apple prefers to work directly with the publishers meaning Scrollmotion is being cut out of the tablet. The App Store was only filled with a couple hundreds of apps on the launch day. The same thing will happen to the availability of e-books. A large library of e-books isn’t expected until mid-2010 at the very earliest. However, that doesn’t mean the tablet will not be in stores before then.
Even though publishers have not seen the Apple Tablet, they seem to have some knowledge about the device. According to those publishers the device will have a 10-inch glass screen and is smaller but roughly equal in weigh compared to Amazon’s Kindle DX. The price of the device will not be anywhere near the $1000 mark.
Speaking about the price. A Twitter tweet (see above), which has been quickly removed, from the German electronics retailer MediaMarkt claims the device will cost €499 with a monthly data plan and €899 without it. Looking at the price conversions in Apple’s online stores this could mean the tablet will costs somewhere near $999 without a data plan and $599 with a data plan. Leaves me with one question: If the publishers are speaking the truth, were they talking about the price with a data plan or not? On the other hand, the fact that the tweet was quickly removed (but not before it was retweeted many times), may indicate a false alarm.
No matter what the tablet will cost, it seems New York Times employees have a lot of confidence in the new product. According to a new report employees from NYT have been traveling to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California to work on a new version of the newspaper’s iPhone application. The application must be prepared to offer video and an optimized resolution for a large-screen tablet device.
“Apple has been slowly amassing digital reading material for the forthcoming device. A team from the New York Times has been working in Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters in recent weeks, developing a large-screen version of the newspaper’s iPhone application that incorporates video for the yet-to-be-unveiled device, according to one person with knowledge of the matter. A Times spokeswoman declined to comment.”
New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. said he will not be attending Apple’s media event and only said “Stay tuned”
when asked for a comment on Apple’s involvement with the newspaper’s plan to bring the newspaper to the tablet device.
To end the summary, here are two photos of the so called iTablet. They are probably fake, but they look very good. If the tablet looks like that I think I speak for most of us when I say: “What a beauty!”
click on the pictures to see a larger version
Source: Publishers Tidbits / MediaMarkt tweet / NYT Tablet App / Leaked Tablet Pictures
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Brim over I agree but I about the brief should have more info then it has.