Publishers view the iPad and the reader-friendly revolution it represents as a salvation. Reports that the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other pubs are putting finishing touches on iPad apps and pricing models abound. And video demos like this show the possibilities when imaginative design meets as intuitive and joy-producing an interface as the iPad promises to deliver.
So what’s a trade magazine publisher to do? It’ll be interesting to see how they exploit — or choose to not to exploit — the new horizons at hand. It’s a bit of a toss-up as to how quickly the iPad — or tablet computing in general — will see enterprise penetration. Will its reach be negligible? Or will there be a tipping point driven by universal consumer adoption of touch-tablet interfaces where the B2B publishing community comes over the fence?
The simple fact is that tablet computer has a host of advantages in terms of portability and ease of usage that, combined with burgeoning 3G/4G network capabilities, and more, mean you could see tablets making pretty immediate inroads with business users. Especially road warriors, I’ll wager.
Many of them are part of publishing corporations already investing in iPad/tablet reader technologies, so it might be an easy migration to platforms their organization already possesses. Or it might be a painful transition for some smaller houses. But is also begs the question…where does this take B2B advertising?
The video demonstrates just the very tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s possible. That extends, obviously, to ads, as well. Embedded video? Site links? Augmented Reality overlays? It’s all fair game. B2B advertisers and their agencies need to take a loooooong look at where tablet computing is taking the B2B marketing and digital world — and their customers — so they can be ready to leverage its true B2B marketing potential.
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