iAwesome

THE YEAR IS 2010!

I roll out of bed and head to the kitchen to make some toast. My newspaper is waiting for me at the table. It was delivered there this morning. I read the articles I choose and move on to my favourite book, a political thriller that I can read with my sleepy brain still at half capacity. I can also check my emails and go through my blog roll. I check what time my bus comes and have yet to get up from my kitchen table.

Let's face it, people like convenience, getting my newspaper sent to my fingertips every morning along with a good book, the STM bus schedule and my favourite websites is pretty darn convenient. I can do all this on my iPhone right now, except the screen is really small. I can also do this on a desktop PC or laptop, but those need to boot up. The versatility that the iPad brings to very mundane things is something I cannot wait to experience.

Take the newspaper. If it sent to my iPad every morning, it costs them absolutely nothing in printing or delivery costs and I get to save a few trees in the process. Newspapers will be able to lower subscription rates, but still put ads in my face and make their money. I can also browse several newspapers in a day, especially if I can do it on the move without pulling out a bunch of papers. I can save and email articles with the touch of a finger, spreading the news and ad revenue to my friends. Will it save newspapers? Maybe. Will it allow them to get more eyeballs on their articles? Absolutely.

As for the iBooks, I await this new feature with great anticipation. I buy a lot of books, and I read almost all of them from cover to cover. They pile up in my house and I give some away to local libraries but it still stacks up. Imagine how much a publisher can save if he can send me a book for 5$, without having to pay the price of printing it, shipping it, warehousing it, and displaying it in a store. Look at how much money we save just by ordering hard copies online. Imagine if we did not need to print the books! And it saves a butt load of paper. Every sale of an iBook minus the fee paid to Apple will be pure profit, just like it is with iTunes.

How long will it take for computer techies to put their expensive textbooks online? The cost of college textbooks nearly amounts to the price of an iPad per year. Except on these textbooks, I can highlight with my fingers and add notes where I want them, without having to carry a bulky schoolbag full of books. If I need to change subject or textbook I press two buttons and I can pick up where I left off. Apple knows their market, young people, mostly students, will find a way to use this gadget to save a lot of money over the course of their studies. The price is peanuts when you compare the actual cost of textbooks. These companies will need to adapt quickly and offer their textbooks on iBooks before they feel the brunt of piracy that the music industry has suffered over the last decade.

This is just the beginning and I haven't even gotten to the apps yet. The iPad has the potential to change the world by saving one heck of a lot paper and get people reading again. While many will still watch TV or movies on it, the simple availability of the news and current events at our fingertips (literally) can only help at a point where society is becoming more and more disengaged. I can't wait to get my hands on mine. I hope you will too.