I find the majority of articles discussing the shape of Apple’s ‘latest creation’, frustrating. What bugs me is their collective lack of commitment and their constant need to apologise for being part of the hype around what will be the world’s first, full-colour digital e-reader. Let me place my neck squarely on the block and predict the most important dimension of the next Wednesday’s launch: it will change publishing, forever. Yep, it’s a multi-touch tablet that will play music and movies and apps and propose an initially frustrating on-screen keyboard solution, which will ultimately prove blissfully easy to use – but the real news, the point that needs making, is that the device, which will certainly not be called iSlate, will lead to a complete overhaul of how most of us read.
This quantum shift in the way we read newspapers, magazines and books won’t happen overnight – just as the music industry didn’t embrace iTunes’ seminal solution to the problem of making money from digital pop - but it will always be perceived as the beginning of reading, post printing press.
I have it on good authority that several major UK newspapers have been approached to format their publications for ‘a tablet device’. And as an author with my own book available in digital format, I can tell you that publishers and authors know that a move to the next phase of publishing is long overdue. But my main reason for focussing on the e-reader part of the new tablet equation, is that as a race of word hungry wretches, we’re all crying out for someone with Apple’s clout to push us to the next and inevitable rung on the reading ladder. Whether we realise it or not, the option to download any book, any newspaper or magazine from any year, month or day, in full colour, in an instant, is as inevitable as the death of the combustion engine.
For some sage commentary on Apple’s latest offering I recommend following @claudineb (Technology Editor for The Telegraph) who will be at the launch in San Francisco next Wednesday.
