In this third and last part I’ll talk about the New York Times. It seems they can’t agree on the pricing of a subscription of their newspaper on the iPad. I have a little video of a piece of the January keynote which shows how the newspaper would look like on the iPad. And ofcourse with all the news about e-books, the question is: are people going to buy those books?

Pricing of the NYT

It seems the people working at the New York Times can’t agree on the pricing of their newspaper on the iPad. The digital operation of the NYT wants to charge $10 per month, while managers and the print circulation wants to ask up to $30 per month. The high price seems to come out of fear of loosing their existing customers. They think if customers can get books and newspapers for a lower price on the iPad, they will unsubscribe their current newspaper subscription.

But it would be more logical to lower the prices. You don’t have the printing costs and the costs for physical distribution. The Wall Street Journal is already using the payment model for online content and users are definitely prepared to pay for it. The New York Times is still trying to find its way into this new way of paying for newspapers. Most of their online content can be viewed for free. It’s not until 2011 when the online content will require a payment.

The chances are the high prices will ultimately win. President Scott Heekin-Canedy of the NYT Media Group also likes the idea of higher prices. On the Amazon Kindle prices for the digital version of the NYT is only $13,99, pretty low. The Wall Street Journal wants their customers to pay $14,99 and USA Today is asking $11,99 per month. So why is it so difficult to agree on prices for the iPad? The next following days or maybe weeks or even months will eventually give more information about the pricing.

Video

In the meantime you can watch a piece of the Apple keynote of January this year. The video shows the NYT giving a demo of the digital iPad version of their newspaper.

O’Reilly has sold 100,000 e-books

With all the news about e-books on the iPad, one last question remains: are people willing to buy e-books? The Kindle seems to prove that people want to read books in a digital form. The market seems ready. But the iPad is much more than only an e-reader. Will people buy e-books on that device as well? The answer is yes. At least, the iPhone suggests the answer is yes.

O’Reilly has announced that they have sold more than 100,000 e-books via the App Store. That means people are reading those books on the small screen of an iPhone or iPod touch. With the iPad and its larger screen the possibilities are even better.

Below is a picture showing that 54% of the sales is from outside the US. Books that are probably harder to get in Europe for example, are available in their digital form for everybody to buy.

According to former Apple developer Joshua A. Strickland, Apple was working on a tablet computer back in 2003 and it is possible they were working on such a device even before that. The problem was that the PowerPC-chip needed to much energy, turning the tablet into a useless device. The graphic power and the fact that the parts to build the tablet costed more than $500 were two other major problems:

“It couldn’t be built. The battery life wasn’t long enough, the graphics performance was not enough to do anything and the components themselves cost more than $500.”

Because of these problems, the tablet computer didn’t reach the market. Another Apple executive claims that the idea had been shelved a number of times at Apple, because Steve Jobs questioned himself:

“What are they good for besides surfing the Web in the bathroom?”

The iPhone and iPod touch are extremely popular and it is likely the mind of Steve is changed and he will give green light to the release of his tablet computer soon. However, Steve Jobs still hasn’t given final approval according to recent reports.

What do you think, will be the killer feature of this device?