The Apple’s iPad is the craze right now and the current must have device in the Tablet PC segment. As per company sources, over half a million iPads have already been sold and the rage never seems to die down. In fact, Apple is finding it hard to satisfy the demand within the US, so much that it had to postpone its earlier plans to launch the iPad internationally.
However, the story isn’t one of a happy ending for all of the buyers as there are many who are all too eager to return back the device once and for all. In fact, unconfirmed reports maintain that there is a steady stream of those who are bringing back the iPad after not having being satisfied with it but that’s a different story altogether. That the iPad continues to be in demand is perhaps a bigger story.
Meanwhile, users worldwide continue to wait with bated breath for their chance to lay their hands on the wonder device from Apple. For instance, there is intense demand and interest among buyers in Australia though local retailers are helpless in that they are unable to book orders for a late May Australian release despite several retailers receiving several hundred expression of interest. Pre-orders dates has been pushed back so that it’s now going to begin only on the 10th of May.
In fact one of the retailer quoted that several buyers who attended Steve Job’s launch program in January were even prepared to buy one on the spot itself.
With the demand being sky high, it isn’t surprising for advertisers to go overboard in order to cash in on the craze in the run-up to the iPad’s official release. Also space on iPad apps have been sold to FedEx by Newsweek and several others like Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.
Many top companies like Unilever, Toyota and Korean Air have bought ad space from Time magazine on its apps meant for the iPad. Also in the race is the premium credit card Chase Sapphire that has bought The New York Times’ iPad advertising for a duration of 60 days.
The ad deals for a few month’s listing is worth crazy amount of money and range from $US 75,000 to $US 300,000 as quoted by The New York Times. All of these have led publishers to strongly believe that the innovative iPad from the Apple stable would bring in that much needed Midas touch to their fortunes and create tremendous wealth for them too.
Even media mogul Rupert Murdoch seems impressed for after having criticized the Kindle – Amazon’s e-reader considered to be a complete solution to print media, he is quite buoyant that iPad will be the device for all kinds of media.
He has no doubt on the potential of iPad but despite the outcome of what he predicted, he has plans to charge $US 17.99 for a monthly subscription of the Wall Street Journal app on the iPad and he sure has similar plans for his other British newspapers including The Times and The Sunday Times, the apps for which are going to be available from June onwards.
There’s no denying the fact that the iPad has immense potential to be an innovative platform for publishers and advertisers alike to promote their products. One of the key aspects of success is to reach out to the masses, something that is not a problem with the iPad that has already sold more than five hundred thousand units of the device. Perhaps the best thing here is that the product – the iPad – itself makes for a path breaking method of enhancing interaction with the target audience so that there is stronger access to target market.
With help of iPad, Print ads can be integrated with other live mediums like slide shares, videos, and animation wherein they can capture the reader’s mind better than before. Take for instance Sports Illustrated that showed an ad example of a driving game called Ford Mustang.
Print medium like newspapers or publications have the option of using embedded video that can turn their e-reader editions look straight out of sci-fi movie. Then there’s the choice of using galleries of high quality photography, which cannot be used otherwise with articles in the print medium.
Along with interactivity during breakthrough news, there is good chance of embedding links to multiple databases, interview clips or sporting flashes and real time feeds.
It is futile to think how much iPad can revive the print media, but that the future of it will be shaped by the iPad, there’s no doubt about that.
Keep watching for more on the iPad as well as the latest tablet/slate or e-reader news.
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With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
