ipad posts

Michael Wolf at GigaOm has put together an interesting report in which he believes that the tablet app market will grow to $8 billion annually by 2015. That's a far cry from the $183 million tablet app market he predicts for 2010. Wolf believes that downloads of paid apps will be significantly higher for tablets than for smartphones. In 2011, he believes 179 million paid apps will be downloaded. By 2013 he expects that number will reach 630 million. He also believes that downloads of tablet apps (paid, free, and ad-supported) will reach 12 billion by 2015, up from 272 million in 2010.

Wolf is quick to point out that that $8 billion app market is only for paid apps on tablets -- he doesn't include apps that monetize in different ways like advertising, paid content subscriptions, or content downloads. While Wolf sees Apple leading the tablet market he also sees Microsoft and Google sharing in that market and believes that by 2015 the tablet market will be a 43-million-unit-per-year industry. With all the hype surrounding the iPad and tablets in general, the media's constant use of the phrase "gold rush" to describe the coming iPad app market seem increasingly spot on.

Whoops -- somebody at Apple accidentally jumped the gun on sending a few iPad titles to the App Store. A few HD titles have snuck into iTunes' web interface a little early, and while we already knew that some of them were on the way to the iPad (Flight Control HD has already been announced, and NBA Hotshot HD was rumored), there are a few interesting new names in this list:

• Ammoin HD
• Azkend HD
• Flight Control HD
• Grind HD
• Labyrinth 2 HD
• NBA Hotshot HD
• Numba HD
• Plants vs. Zombies HD
• Sparkle HD
• Worms HD

Plants vs. Zombies HD? Worms HD? Yes please. Looks like Apple is already working their way through the iPad application process, and a few apps are already approved and ready for launch on April 3rd. If this list is any indication, there will be no shortage of games to play on your new iPad.

[via TA]

When I heard that a 3G iPad would be coming out, the first thought that came to my mind was "Why?" In my decidedly warped mind, I equate the use cases for an iPad more to my MacBook Air than I do to my iPhone.

While I was on my recent vacation, I got into a discussion with a fellow cruiser who was going to wait for the 3G model before taking the iPad plunge (as Macworld's Jason Snell suggested). He wanted to know why I wasn't waiting, so I gave him the following reasons:

1) I want to gloat. Yep, while those other people are waiting another month to pay an additional US$130 to get their 3G iPads, I'm going to have a month to play with my iPad, watch movies, see how well it works when blogging or writing, and otherwise just show off with the damned thing. Woo-hoooo! When it comes to Apple technology, I always demand the latest and greatest, and the iPad is no exception. In fact, I haven't been this excited about a new Apple product since 1993 when the Newton MessagePad hit the streets.

If the supposed note from El Steve-o is to be believed, the iPhone is getting a unified mailbox at some future date. Don't you wonder what Apple was thinking when it wasn't in the original iPhone plan?

In Mac OS X, I like seeing all of my email on one page, and with a quick click I can look at any email account segregated from the others -- easy peezy.

You would have thought that the famous Apple GUI designers would apply the same logic to the iPhone, but for more than two years I've had to really struggle to see what is coming in on 3 different accounts. I'm tapping more than the Titanic's radio operator just to see what email I have.

I hope the fix comes soon, and that it winds up on the iPad as well. The lack of a unified or universal mailbox is one of those strange Apple decisions that is hard to understand. The lack of cut, copy, and paste was another seemingly bone-headed choice that Apple finally got right. Now Microsoft seems to be drinking the same kool-aid with its upcoming Windows Phone 7 OS. The company says no copy/paste will be in the phone OS, and they're telling users they don't really need it anyway. Sure.

Apple makes a lot of great choices and we love Apple products, but every so often they seem to miss a big feature. After a lot of bad feelings from customers, they finally make it right. Usually. Sometimes. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for that unified inbox, and switching frantically between mail accounts. Grrrrr.

Can you think of some other big missing items? A camera in the iPad comes to mind...

A few readers have sent up tips about odd "iPad - test" video links showing up on CBS.com. MacRumors did some digging and discovered that if you click on the iPad-test links in your computer's browser, you'll be taken to the normal Flash versions of the video. However if you're on the iPad SDK Simulator or spoof your browser's User-Agent to impersonate an iPad, you're sent to a HTML5 version of the video.

MacRumors notes that the HTML5 version of the videos doesn't work yet, but there does seem to be full screen support and the CSS fills reference HTML5 and have a number of specific "webkit" calls.

Many, including Steve Jobs, see HTML5 as the successor to Flash -- and things aren't looking too hot for the Adobe plugin's continued dominance. In January Google launched a HTML5 Youtube beta site followed by Virgin America announcing earlier this month that they dumped Flash from their website because the iPhone doesn't support it. Of course, HTML5/iPad support doesn't mean CBS is ditching Flash. They could be following in the footsteps of NPR and the Wall Street Journal and creating two different websites -- one Flash-free -- for users of the iPad. Whatever the case, it's nice to see CBS planning for the iPad and one hopes the other major networks will follow suit.

We've heard that Apple is still trying to hammer down multimedia content, but print may not be in the bag just yet. Random House is apparently applying some last minute pressure to Apple, since the company says that it's not quite sure about how pricing will work on the iPad. Apple's offer is that it will take its 30% of profit in that 70/30 "agency" split, but Random House is waffling and claiming that they need to think about it before anything gets signed.

If you ask me, it sounds like they're just pushing for a little more control while they still can. iBookstore pricing all seems pretty solid, and most of Random House's competitors have already signed on. This means that, if Random House does pass on Apple's deal, not only will they not be selling books, they'll also be left in the lurch when the iPad does take off. Right now, before the iPad's actual earnings become anything but hypothetical, Random House can pose all it wants. However, I'm pretty sure that after April 3rd, Apple will have most of the cards in terms of making content deals on the iPad.

App Advice has posted a first-hand look at the iBookstore, complete with some pricing specifics. Alexander Vaughn received a preview of the app (he doesn't explain where or how) and walked away with a screenshot and the following details:

• Of the 32 books featured as New York Times (NYT) bestsellers, 27 are US$9.99. That includes the top 10 sellers.
• All of the remaining five are under $13
• The highest priced NYT bestseller, Poor Little Bitch Girl by Jackie Collins, is $12.99

On the Kindle, Poor Little Bitch Girl costs $8.83. But the important thing to note is that Apple has hit the $9.99 price point with these top-sellers.

The pricing war that's about to erupt between the Kindle, Nook and iBookstore will be interesting to watch. Apple has offered publishers the same deal given to App Store developers -- name your price and Apple gets 30%. After receiving pressure from its publishers, Amazon altered their arrangement to mimic Apple's. It seems that, by letting publishers name their price, there wouldn't be room for the $9.99 ebook in the iBookstore. According to Alexander's sneak peak, that's not the case.

We saw our first hint of iBookstore pricing when a leaked list appeared in February, and again after careful examination of the iPad's first television commercial. With one-third of iPad customers saying they intend to use their devices to read books, newspapers and magazines, the potential is huge. It will fun to watch this story develop.

If you've missed the fun of TUAW TV Live the last few weeks, you'll be happy (maybe even ecstatic) that the show is back this week. Your host Steve Sande is back from cruising around the Caribbean, and he's tanned, rested, and ready to fill an hour with talk of iPad, iPhone, Mac, and maybe even a touch of iPod.

Today's topics include:

• Pee-Wee Herman has an iPad
• Auto Smiley emotes for you
• How expensive and slow is cruise ship Internet? Very. How to reduce Internet costs while traveling
• Why there's no need to wait for the 3G iPad
• LaCie Network Space 2 NAS
• And as always, anything you'd like to discuss (within reason, of course)

To join the show, just drop by at 5 PM EDT today (2 PM PDT) and we'll have a post up that will feature the Ustream livestream as well as the chat tool.

Flurry's got lots of new data this week -- earlier, we heard that 44% of apps coming to the iPad are going to be games, and now they're saying that Apple is making huge headway into the gaming market overall. According to the latest numbers, the iPhone OS has nabbed 15% of the mobile game market away from bigger handhelds like the Nintendo DS and the PSP, and the iPhone itself has actually claimed 5% of the worldwide video game market. That's pretty astounding. In just a few years, the iPhone has picked up a sizeable amount of share in one of the biggest markets in the world, and Apple has done it all while actually selling the device as a smartphone.

What's even more amazing is that Apple has done all of this without actually making a single game themselves (Update: Reader Sunny reminds me that they made one). Video game console manufacturers have long had to deal with the relationship between first-party and third-party games -- Nintendo, especially, has struggled with getting their third-party software up to snuff. For Apple, however, there is no first-party; they just open up the App Store and let the sales fly.

Of course, that drum beating you hear in the distance is the iPad. While Apple has, again, focused on productivity and media rather than gaming, there's no question at all that a bigger touchscreen can, and will, create a whole new experience for gamers. The iPhone has come a long way in the past year and a half, but I'd expect the iPad to take an even bigger bite out of the game industry after all is said and done.

[via iPhone Savior]

I pre-ordered an Eye-Fi Pro X2 from Amazon a few weeks ago. (Don't be too jealous, I did it when I decided that I was going to have to wait for an iPad for financial reasons.) This is not my first Eye-Fi card, as I bought a 2GB version a few years ago -- and quite frankly, I hated it and thought it was overpriced.

We have talked about the Eye-Fi before, but if you are not familiar with it, here's a basic summary: the Eye-Fi cards are Wi-Fi enabled, meaning that you can upload your pictures from your camera without a USB cable or card reader. You can set it to automatically upload to iPhoto, or just to a specific folder on your computer. You also have the option to have your pictures uploaded to MobileMe, Flickr, Evernote, Picasa, Facebook, and many other places (see chart in new window). Videos can be uploaded to Flickr (only 90 seconds maximum, though), Picasa, YouTube, Facebook, Phanfare, and Photobucket. You can even set it up to send notifications via email, Facebook, Twitter, or SMS when transfers start, finish, or are interrupted.

The Pro X2, at US$150, is still expensive and it is SD-only (sorry, CF users), but the new card comes with a host of new features which make it worthwhile. The first is the the card is a Class 6 device, meaning that it is fast. The older Eye-Fi card always felt like it was really slow to me, which meant that I didn't always want to use it. This new card is as fast as any card I own, and the limiting factor now seems to be my camera, not the card.

There's a whole lot more.

comScore recently polled 2,176 iPad customers regarding their plans for the new device. Not surprisingly, one-third of them said that they intend to use it to read books and newspapers.

Specifically, 37% of respondents said that they're "likely" to read books on their iPads, and 34% said they intend to use it to read newspapers and magazines. Drilling down further, comScore identified that those who already own Apple products (they call them "iOwners") are more likely to pay for newspaper and magazine digital subscriptions -- a full 52%.

Among all the people I've discussed the iPad with, the vast majority intend to use it just as I do -- as a leisure device. I see it being the thing that's left on a coffee table to be picked up in the evening for watching videos, leisure web browsing and reading books and magazines. Today I sit on the couch with my wife while my MacBook Pro singes my legs and takes up too much room. An iPad the size of a magazine will be much more pleasant to manage and pass back-and-forth while we relax together at the end of the day.

Once additional apps are released, increasing its functionality, there will be more and more roles for it to fill. Mark my words: It's going to be a huge hit.

[Via AppleInsider]

If you don't already know about Project Gutenberg, you should. The site has over 30,000 free ebooks, most of them classics whose copyrights have lapsed. The site includes big-name titles from big-name authors, representing everyone from Dante Alighieri to H.G. Wells. The site's free digital ebooks saved me untold hundreds of dollars while I was doing undergrad work for my English degree.

9to5Mac points out that all of those ebooks should be compatible with Apple's forthcoming iBooks app for the iPad. iBooks will be using the ePub format, and Apple itself has said "you can add free ePub titles to iTunes and sync them to the iBooks app on your iPad." ePub is one of many formats available for Project Gutenberg's ebooks; therefore, it stands to reason that those ebooks should all work in the iBooks app.

However, even if Project Gutenberg's ebooks don't work in iBooks, whether for technical reasons such as formatting or more sinister reasons such as content providers' demands, it won't matter. Project Gutenberg's ebooks are already available on the iPhone and iPod touch through multiple channels -- the Stanza app, and through Project Gutenberg's own site via MobileSafari -- and the iPad will be able to access Project Gutenberg's library in the same way. Reading those ebooks will undoubtedly be a better experience on the iPad's larger screen, whether it's through iBooks, Stanza, Safari, or some other means.

Apple isn't advertising the iPad as coming with 30,000 free books, but thanks to Project Gutenberg, without spending a penny more than the cost of the iPad itself, you'll be able to carry an entire library of classics around in a device that weighs less than most hardcover novels.
[Via Cult of Mac]

Despite threats from Amazon that it will stop selling the independent publisher's books if they sign on with Apple's iBookstore, Perseus Books Group, the largest independent publisher, has signed a deal with Apple. David Steinberger, chief executive of Perseus, told the New York Times, "We're working with Apple to make books from The Perseus Books Group and the independent publishers we represent available on the iBookstore starting on April 3. As the leading provider of distribution services for independent publishers, including digital distribution through our Constellation digital service, Perseus is thrilled to be making our books available on the iPad."

Perseus also distributes books from 330 smaller presses, the most notable being Harvard Business School Press and Zagat. Similar to Apple's deal with app developers and the other large publishers who have already signed on, Apple will allow Perseus to set prices for their ebooks while Apple will receive a 30% cut. With the number of publishers clamoring to get in on the iBookstore, one begins to wonder if it's more of a question of "when" and not "if" that Apple will become the largest ebook reseller.

Sunday night on the Talkcast, we pointed out that we didn't know exactly which developers were getting those test iPads to play with. However, we might know just which apps they're testing. According to Flurry Analytics, who have (somehow) been watching traffic from the iPhone OS 3.2, 44% of the apps being tested on the iPad right now are games. Entertainment apps (which seems like a broad category) falls into second place with 14%, and then the list evens out around there -- social networking claims 7% of the apps, sports 6%, travel 5%, and so on.

It's not completely clear where this data comes from -- presumably, Flurry is finding web traffic somewhere that's marked as coming to or from an iPad. Of course, that doesn't guarantee that these numbers are legit. Some apps are more likely to send traffic than others, and all we see here are percentages, as Flurry hasn't released actual numbers. "Games," as we speculated last night, probably means that bigger companies like EA and Gameloft have test iPads to try out, and "social networking" probably means that Facebook and possibly Foursquare are testing their apps. "Sports" could mean that MLB is testing its app, and so on.

It looks like gamers who have an iPad on day one will at least have plenty of game titles to choose from. The iPhone's App Store took a little while to get rolling with some hit apps, but developers and Apple seem to be doing everything they can to ensure that there are some popular downloads in the iPad's App Store right away.

[via TheAppleBlog]

Out of all of the iPod or iPhone cases I've seen, Vaja makes my personal favorites -- I bought one of their cases for my 80gb iPod, and it's still the best gadget case I've ever owned. They're a little pricier than some cases, but the exquisite leather, custom design, and solid crafting makes the purchase worth it.

And now they've introduced an iPad case as well. Of course, the iPad's use chart looks a little different -- it doesn't necessarily seem like the kind of device you'll be pulling out while walking around, and you probably don't need a great leather case if you're just going to use it as a satellite computer around your home (not that anyone knows for sure how they're going to use their iPad yet). But Vaja makes some quality cases, and while they haven't announced all of their iPad options yet (the Retro Slim Jacket is the only one available right now), it might be worth looking at if you'd rather put a little leather on your new Apple tablet.

Customization is not yet announced but likely -- when I ordered my iPod's case, there were a whole bunch of different case styles and colors to choose from. Cost on the one they've got is $120, and they're saying it takes about 25 days to get each custom-made case put together. A Vaja case isn't something to be purchased lightly, but quality like this doesn't come cheap or fast.