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Rumored Apple tablet more for video, than for print publications?

Friday, October 30, 2009 · 11:11 am · 40 Comments

“In a report to clients issued Friday, RBC’s Mike Abramsky ticks off the key takeaways from his meeting with Eddy Cue (vice president for iTunes and Internet services), David Moody (vice president for worldwide Mac marketing) and CFO Peter Oppenheimer,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.

At one point, “they were talking about Apple TV, but it was as if they were thinking about future tablet computers,” Elmer-DeWitt writes.

Here’s what Abramsky reports, in analyst shorthand, about that portion of the conversation: “Video/Content Opportunities. After music, video content is expected to be the next “exploding” opportunity, but requires overcoming industry rights dysfunctionality, competing with subsidies (cable box, video), and developing the right consumer ‘offer.’ Apple TV, while still a ‘hobby,’ is well positioned to benefit from evolving market dynamics. Apple was less enthusiastic about the online book/newspaper market, given unattractive industry structure.”

Elmer-DeWitt writes, “Sounds like they expect an Apple tablet — should they be building one — to be used a lot more for watching movies than for reading novels and newspapers.”

Read the full article, with other highlights of the Apple execs’ remarks, here.

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Comment Feed

40 Comments

1 2 Next »

OctoberMac

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:14 am · Reply

How about for watching videos associated with news sites?
The Other Steve

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:22 am · Reply

There’s going to be a tablet from Apple . . . sometime?!?!?

Shocker!
G4Dualie

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:22 am · Reply

Dysfunctional is right.
ecrabb

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:24 am · Reply

@OctoberMac,

No kidding. This is where I think online news kicks all other forms of news right in the ass. When I want news, I want to decide what I’m interested in – not what the network schedule dictates or the editor thinks I should be interested in.

I think we’re in the early stages of another revolution, and I don’t necessarily mean because of any impending device that Apple may- or may not be shipping (though that could certainly have a profound effect on what I’m talking about).

Out with newspapers and cable news, and in with a redesigned, accessible medium that puts the viewers in charge of deciding what news is important to them and when and how they consume it.

Think about how mp3, iTunes and the iPod fundamentally changed how people buy and listen to music. That’s what I’m talking about.
Jersey_Trader

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:28 am · Reply

It is going to be a very mobile multi-touch wireless Mac computer. We will do what ever we wish with it. Think half breed between a iPod touch and a MacBook. Give me an iChat on the thing and the ability to run the iPhone apps and programers will tell you what people will be doing with it!
HolyMackerel

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:35 am · Reply

Yet it is the Games and Browser that will be the killer functions. We watch video (who has time?) and read newspapers (even less time) a fraction compared with playing for many and surfing for all.

Give me a decent browser and I can get all the Office apps I need from the Cloud. iPhone apps will fill in any remaining gaps.
bizlaw

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:36 am · Reply

That’s because the traditional newspaper/news magazine format is dying. Newspapers were more about selling ads than reporting the news. Now that advertising revenues have fallen off a cliff, and people are in front of their computers for several hours a day, newspapers are irrelevant. Why build a new device based on a dying business model?
Bubbles

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:46 am · Reply

Smokescreen!
R2

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:53 am · Reply

The screen better be damn good if that’s the case.
Predrag

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:55 am · Reply

…”When I want news, I want to decide what I’m interested in”

This approach to news has generated news sources such as DrudgeReport or NewsMax (as well as Huffington Post or AlterNet). And when one gets all their news from such sources, one becomes increasingly misinformed (or dis-informed).

People’s tendency to become more extreme after speaking with like-minded others has become known as “group polarization,” and it has been documented in dozens of experiments. Cherry-picking news source to one’s own liking is what has caused such severe political polarisation in the US, and similar symptoms are appearing elsewhere in the developed world. Unlike the two-party dictatorship of the US, however, other countries have genuine multi-party democracies, which makes polarisation much more difficult.

I’m not quite convinced that the abundance of news sources and easy access to them has made us better informed. If a device (made by Apple or someone else) that simplifies even more the access to all these sources becomes popular, the end result might even be an even more polarised populace.
MacTony

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 11:55 am · Reply

I’ll believe that they are making a tablet when I put my hands on one at the Apple Store.
Tim Flint

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 12:06 pm · Reply

I’m a reader. Video is passive. Reading makes you think. If the Apple Tablet is not for print – count me out.
Les S

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 12:09 pm · Reply

Apple is the quite good at the art of misdirection.
alansky

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 12:14 pm · Reply

Is it bigger than a bread box? What is this: Twenty Questions?

Talk about a waste of electrons! And MDN is helping to fan the flames of idle speculation by reprinting stuff like this.
ecrabb

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 12:31 pm · Reply

@Tim Flint,

One can read just as passively as another can watch video. Reading can be like walking – you can absolutely do it without thinking. How many times have you read an entire chapter of a book, only to finish and realize you don’t remember a damn thing?

By the same token, I can watch video just as actively or thoughtfully as I read (and I do). I could even make the case that video is actually far superior to a book for engaging knowledge transfer.

Whether, book, video, or some other experience, the onus is on the individual to learn.
Mac-nugget

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 12:51 pm · Reply

These stories crack me up. The thing has not even been acknowledged even being developed by Apple, and they are already speculating it’s niche purpose. Well I think it will double as a kitchen cutting bord. You can chop onions while watching Hulu. Pretty cool.
Predrag

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 12:51 pm · Reply

to ecrabb

While you are correct, Tim Flint has a valid point. Vast majority of people watch video very passively. Even larger majority of people who read, do it actively. We often decide to watch TV because it is already on. In most cases, it is there to provide a non-challenging way to entertain ourselves. Even with movies, we frequently watch them with minimal concentration, just enough to follow the plot line.

On the other hand, reading always requires a bit more of an effort and engagement. We never decide to read something without concentration; while watching without engagement can still be entertaining, reading without engagement provides absolutely nothing.

Video may be a more effective tool for knowledge transfer, as it engages multiple senses, but only if the recipient is properly focused, which isn’t always guaranteed. It is much easier to drift away from a video than from reading text; you really need to be (mentally) tired in order to lose focus on the text you’re reading.
ecrabb

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 12:56 pm · Reply

@Predrag,

While I agree to an extent with much of what you wrote, I think there also exists perhaps a not-so-obvious corollary to your suggestions.

I would also submit that being spoon-fed non-controversial, middle-of-the-road, wishy-washy, planned and edited mass-media corporate “news” for decades upon decades molded us into the passive, uninvolved, apathetic society we are today, and that the widespread availability of uninhibited, unabashed, to-the-point ideas from many perspectives has made us less passive, more involved, and enthusiastic in our participation in the arenas of ideas. Perhaps we’re actually “finding our true selves” again as a people.

Even if you don’t subscribe to what I just proposed, I’m sure you would admit that this “nouveau” communication medium has its pros and cons. Not coincidentally, it’s just like freedom of speech where we accept that we’ll have some bad along with the overwhelming good.

I don’t think political polarization is inherently bad; it does provide a sort of “check and balance”. The risk is, of course that we become so polarized that we can’t remain united as fellow citizens (of our nation/species/planet).

Sorry. That might have been a little deep for a Friday morning MDN Apple tablet thread. Back to impending slate/tablet/news/video device discussion. TGIF! Cheers!
Mac-nugget

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 1:06 pm · Reply

@ecrabb
What a shallow statement. Video might work better for you, but that is it. I find books a lot more engaging than movies. As a matter of fact, I often get disappointed by the script adaptation of movies made from books. The book is always almost with no exception better then the movie. But that is just me. If would read a whole chapter and did not remember what I just read, like you, I probably go for the movie too.

Now as a learning tool, I think it depends what you are attempting to learn.
Mac-nugget

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 1:09 pm · Reply

@ecrabb, I was referring to your fist post, not the second one.
Mac-nugget

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 1:11 pm · Reply

@ecrabb, I actually agree with much of what you said in your second post.
ron

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 1:13 pm · Reply

Take two tablets and call me in the morning. Doctor Apple.
Ron Robertson

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 1:31 pm · Reply

@ecrabb & @predrag

That’s some of the smartest writing I’ve seen in the reader comments here for some time!

I tend to agree a lot with you predrag, particularly about the current state of the news media. And the point has been made before about there being so many news outlets causing people to fracture to the point of viewing only what they want to see, and not being exposed to other points of view. I do think we have become far more polarized.

However, I’m thinking that a lot of polarization is caused by irresponsible people in the media (to use the kindest characterization I can), who blithely stir up their followers not with the truth, but with cherry-picked information and even lies.

Big media has a responsibility to talk about this misinformation, and call them out on it, but they fail in that over and over, and often have a hand in spreading misinformation. As examples, look at how the NY Times handled Wen Ho Lee and Whitewater. This hysteria was then echoed throughout the TV news and other media outlets. The same can be said about the Iraq “war,” which was started on a set of lies, and the same people who were wrong about all of that, are busily pushing for another war in Iran, and endless war in Afghanistan, spending money we do not have.

A lot of the people in the mainstream media are given to “group think,” and will blindly cover for each other. Look at how the media has bought wholesale the Fox News line that their “opinion” programs shouldn’t be criticized by the White House, or that the White House has no right to recognize that Fox is a political organization far more than it is a news organization.

Why shouldn’t opinion be criticized, when the opinion is clearly false and puts forth lies and misinformation? Anything being broadcast can and SHOULD be held up to scrutiny and criticism, from any and all political stripes. MSNBC should be held to account as much as Fox, and all outlets should be treated by the public with at least a bit of skepticism these days.
Predrag

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 1:36 pm · Reply

…”The risk is, of course that we become so polarized that we can’t remain united as fellow citizens (of our nation/species/planet).”

This is the core of my point. The finer point being, while the “nouveau” mode of communication does not by its nature cause polarisation (which is instead a consequence of our human nature to gravitate to those who think like us), it is really difficult to argue that we are now really better informed than before, as long as the sources for information are selected by us ourselves. These sources tend to capitalise on our natural tendencies to seek out like-minded content; of all the external links on DrudgeReport or Huffington Post, vast majority are to the same kind of sources; if there are links to the opposite view, they will ALWAYS be provided with caution (“look how dangerous, dumb, or contemptible their views really are”). A good example is “Think Before You Click”, that MDN often does for their links (much more harmless than political news, but the essence is the same).

Unless (or until) the populace begins moving to the all-inclusive sources that provide variety of viewpoints, polarisation will continue. There is a reason why in some countries, national law requires for media to present both opposing views on an issue that is making the news. Some states in the US had tried that; I’m not sure how successful it was (or is, if it is still on the books).
Jose

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 1:38 pm · Reply

Apple thinks integrated while the world thinks bi-polar.

Apple will produce a tablet that integrates animation and print. You can see their direction now–with their cutting-edge animated, Javascript enabled, web ads; and with their work in HTML5, Javascript, and SVG standards.

Apple is creating a new medium and I suspect they’re working hard behind the scenes right now, inviting as many of old medium companies to participate as possible.