Andy Ihnatko on the “rumored Apple tablet”, its impact on digital publishing, and why 2010 is going to be a landmark year in tech:
Every single manufacturer of anything that is even remotely tablet-like that I’ve ever talked to is just preparing for what happens after Apple releases the tablet. I compared it to like the year before there is a world war where, no it hasn’t been announced, no it hasn’t been scheduled, but everybody is anticipating that the world is going to be fundamentally different this time next year, and they are making arrangements to make sure they are in the best position to survive and thrive in that new landscape; especially when you talk to publishers. Everybody has a concrete plan for how they’re going to deal with the fact that there’s going to be these really cool inexpensive color touchscreen tablets to publish things onto.
2010 is going to be one of the most exciting years in technology, period. I think we’ll look look back on it and just that’ll be one of those little things we put a little red push pin in it and say that’s one of those years where everything changed after that…
I think that the tablet is going to be a really phenomenally cool device but it’s also going to create the environment in which every single magazine, newspaper, and book publisher is going to be that much more compelled to say, “We are going to have a comprehensive digital publishing plan.”
It’s not going to be something that some guy who was a failed vice president who would never make it further in the company — “Well we’re going to give him the digital publishing division because that’s not really very big and it’s not going anywhere.”
Eveybody has a horse in that race and everybody believes that’s an opportunity to make lots and lots of money. It will create the environment in which everybody starts thinking about everything publishing digitally from now on.
via MacBreak Weekly 171: Man of the Year
As usual, Andy nails it. I am a very satisfied Kindle owner, but what Amazon is doing (as well as the Kindle’s current competitors) is really just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re interested in hearing the whole discussion, it starts at 38:29 and goes for about ten minutes.