WSJ Makes Apple Tablet Official

Posted by Editor on Jan 21, 2010 in Amazon Kindle, Apple, Tablets

Apparently the Wall Street Journal still has journalistic integrity, i.e. they don’t pass on every last unsourced rumor the web is happy to. So when they write up a deeply detailed description of Apple’s tablet plans to be unveiled on January 27th, we’re supposed to take this as gospel. Right? In a nutshell, what’s in store is massive changes to the ways we interact with textbooks, newspapers, magazines and cable TV. Here’s some highlights:

Apple’s Official Tablet Game plan

In developing the device, Apple focused on the role the gadget could play in homes and in classrooms, say people familiar with the situation. The company envisions that the tablet can be shared by multiple family members to read news and check email in homes, these people say.

For classrooms, Apple has been exploring electronic-textbook technology, these people add. The people familiar with the matter say Apple has also been looking at how content from newspapers and magazines can be presented differently on the tablet. Other people briefed on the device say the tablet will come with a virtual keyboard.

Apple has recently been in discussions with book, magazine and newspaper publishers about how they can work together. The company has talked with New York Times Co., Condé Nast Publications Inc. and HarperCollins Publishers and its owner News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal, over content for the tablet, say people familiar with the talks.

New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger declined to comment in an interview Wednesday on its involvement in the new device except to say, “stay tuned.”

Apple is also negotiating with television networks such as CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, for a monthly TV subscription service, the Journal has reported. Apple is also working with videogame publisher Electronic Arts Inc. to show off the tablet’s game capabilities, according to one person familiar with the matter.

Head over to the WSJ for their full coverage of the Apple Tablet.

Amazon Strikes Back

Meanwhile, Amazon.com has decided they’re not going down without a fight. In light of Amazon’s announcement of a new pricing plan for Kindle publishers, today Amazon announced they are opening up a Kindle app store to developers wishing to make new applications for the device. Some highlights of Amazon’s plans via the New York Times Bits Blog:

Several partners, including Electronic Arts and Handmark/Zagat Guide, are already playing with the app developent kits.
Apps will be able to be free, carry a one-time cost, or a monthly subscription fee.
Apps will be available “later this year.”
Access to the wireless Web is expensive. Developers will have to pay a steep $0.15 per megabyte of data transfered over the Internet, to compensate for the fact that consumers don’t pay for wireless Internet access on their Kindles.
“On the forbidden list: Internet voice-calling software, advertising, offensive materials, the collecting of customer information without consent, and the use of the Amazon and Kindle brands.”

Seems like a pretty restrictive set of conditions. Would-be developers will have to write applications from scratch as the Kindle’s OS is not likely to be similar to any existing OS. Whereas iPhone developers found relative ease porting existing OSX and Java games. The Kindle is severely limited in terms of multimedia performance being in black and white and limited in motion. Directly charging developers for data transfer also means forget about multiplayer games.

So will anyone get excited about Zagat guides, Sudoku and crosswords? Or are Amazon’s efforts too little & too late to stave off what is sure to be a device with all of these shortcomings addressed with high technology and smart marketing. A lot of handheld MP3 manufacturers that were around before the iPod came out probably would say so, what do you think?