We have all heard the rumors of Apple’s upcoming tablet. It’s supposed to do all kinds of magic tricks. But why don’t you also take a peek at SI Tablet, something that Time Inc. has developed together with The Wonderfactory, on whose site you also can see it.
If we are to believe what we see and hear on the tablet front (but bear in mind that The Wonderfactory seems like the sort of creative Manhattan web agency/advertising bureau where hard core tech geeks would wear anything from giant chicken suits to paper bags just to avoid being seen sneaking in and out of the office) it is going to be a rush to market in 2010.
Now, what are the implications if this vision is true? Let’s just point to a few core ones.
For one, it is going to be mightily expensive to produce content. An ordinary article would need a production budget the size of a TV show.
But if people enjoy what they experience, we will see the same type of scale effects and centralization that we have seen elsewhere; i.e. magazines need to get even larger in order to be able to afford to deliver. Fewer books would be published, but those that would pass the eye of the needle would be multimedia monsters. We would consume more of less. More Harry Potter and Sports Illustrated. Less of everything else.
It also means more content owners would need to come together. Today different organizations have different rights for different formats. That implies a jockeying for position and a fight concerning who has the most of the most relevant formats. Is it the publisher? Is it the TV networks? Is it the Hollywood Studios?
It also means that background information will become more important. People will want to see developing stories and be able to access more stuff. So, databases need to be updated, access to more information needs to be secured. Once again, a fight between open information, and controlled copyrights. And, in many cases, a fight just to open up already existing archives within existing organizations.
And how will we pay for this? Enter app stores, new advertising models, bundled devices, cell phone operators, the likes.
It is a brave new world in which we will consume more and more stuff digitally. But which ways and methods that will prevail remains to be seen. The same goes for media organizations. The crystal ball is foggy. But:
Once upon a time content was king. Then distribution became King Kong. For the future I place my bets on anybody that can leverage their digital assets by providing well structured and packaged content to multiple devices based on what the user wants.
And here’s the weak point in the SI Tablet and similar visions. It is old thinking, based on old models for publishing content in high volumes on paper. But in a new, fancy wrapping.
Currently technology is far, far ahead of publishers. Publishers need to get at least up on par with tech companies in order to make something truly great of the brightly glowing future of new form factors like the tablets.
Tags: Gradde, publishing, tablets, Voxbiblia