If the Apple tablet does half of what people say it will - for example, if ALL it does is combine the App store ability to distribute/sell content along with a platform that allows you to read comic book content then almost overnight it will completely reinvent the comics industry - in a way that the iPhone has started to make headway in. Not Apple-bashing but I really can't envisage this happening. Maybe that's a failure of imagination on my part: I like a gadget but I've never been an early adopter whether it be games consoles or mp3 players so I generally struggle to see the appeal of paying a premium to get something before I know it's going to be around for a while. What I see the issues being here are price and portability. Are people really going to want to lug something like this around just so they can read Iron Man?
I've covered a lot of this ground in the sunnyside comics podcast, but I think there are a bunch of factors contributing to why a device like this, right now is becoming a foregone conclusion - and you have to come at it from two angles:
(And before I begin, by most people, I mean a substantial number of people - substantial enough that it's all more than viable...)
1) Most people - who are likely to want a computer - already have a decent computer (some may have a couple)
2) Most people who have an internet connection will have a wireless connection
3) There is room - as evidenced by the number of games consoles sold - for devices whose primary function is to provide entertainment while being as expensive as a computer
4) The technology is maturing - the iPhone and the massive - and I mean bloody immense - number of applications that are purchased/downloaded for free - suggests people are more than willing to pay for downloadable content if presented in a 'frictionless' environment (ie, if you have an iphone - then you have an itunes account - if you have an itunes account then buying an app is a one button press followed by your password - no need to hand over credit card details - ie easy micropayments)
And, from the other angle:
1) Comic creators are willing to create content, but are unable to get the market to support even quality content (phonogram series 2 is coming out over such an extended period because it makes no money. Series 3 will not happen in print.)
2) The Diamond distribution model is fucking insane - you preorder a comic three months before reading it. You order issue 2 of a new series before seeing issue 1. Ditto for issue 3. The publisher is paid for issue 1 four (or more) months after issue 1 is first solicited. Everytime I've explained this to civilians they burst out laughing. It's insane for comic creators and insane for readers.
3) Many comics, even those ones that seem are doing well actually don't make money until they're collected as trades - or they barely break even until then.
I've only recently got an internet enabled phone and I don't think I've Turned my netbook on since. The iphone is portable and while the contract was initially a premium it wasn't really that much more per month when you considered all the cool stuff it does. Is paying five or six hundred quid (NB figures plucked directly out my arse) for this going to be the same?
Well, they managed to get the iPhone right, and a lot of the basic infrastructure is already in place - ie the app store, so ... you hold out if you want (as you did with the iPhone - though you finally relented... ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US!)
-pj
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