Now that Apple’s tablet debut date is officially, officially confirmed (old news for All Things Digital readers), we can move on to the next round of speculation. For instance, which media partners will Steve Jobs be working with when this thing launches?
There are lots of media companies who are anticipating the tablet — the entire magazine industry, for instance — and Apple (AAPL) will eventually want all of them on board. The wondertablet is supposed to be a showcase for media, after all.
But very few media companies seem to have any kind of real information about the device. And only a small number will have new stuff to show off at next week’s unveiling.
Like who? Here’s a starter list of likely and unlikely suspects:
- The New York Times (NYT) is a good bet. Executive Editor Bill Keller riled up the Web with a passing reference to an “impending Apple slate” in October, but wouldn’t say more. Last week I asked him again about his paper’s Apple plans, and he stayed mum again. So did Martin Nisenholtz, the paper’s digital boss. “No comment”s don’t equal “we’re cooking something up”, of course. And I’m not convinced that an Apple demo would be directly tied to an announcement about a new pay wall strategy, as New York Magazine speculated on Sunday. But I do expect to see something next week.
- Don’t expect much from the big music labels. Jobs courted Big Music when he opened up the iTunes store in 2003. But label sources I talked to this month said the company had only recently begun briefing them about the tablet, primarily as a “courtesy”. Recall that Apple already has the labels on board with the “iTunes LP” format, which would lend itself quite nicely to a tablet. One label official told me Apple has expressed an interest in selling higher-quality audio files via iTunes, and I’m sure the labels would be happy to do so, if they could charge a premium for them. But that discussion didn’t seem to be tethered to the tablet.
- Do expect to hear about “enhanced e-books”. In the past, Jobs has been dismissive about dedicated e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle (AMZN) and reading in general — “people don’t read anymore“. He has apparently changed his mind about the latter idea: The Wall Street Journal confirmed earlier stories yesterday with a report that News Corp.’s (NWS) HarperCollins is negotiating to bring some of its titles to the platform. Presumably other publishers — all of whom are eager for viable Kindle competitors — want in, too.
- Video? Duh. But who? The most obvious suspect here for an initial launch would be Disney (DIS) and its affiliates. In part because Jobs is the company’s largest individual shareholder, and a board member. But also because Disney CEO Bob Iger has made a point of trying out new digital distribution strategies. Here’s a non-stretch: Disney is already negotiating with Microsoft (MSFT) to bring some of its programming and games to the Xbox 360. What about something similar for the tablet?
A crucial point here is that if the tablet works with the iTunes store — and it should — then it’s most likely that all of the Apple’s existing iTunes media partners will automatically be on the new device from the start, whether or not Jobs showcases them next week. That is: If you can buy “Cars” and watch it on your Mac, iPhone or iPod, then you should be able to watch it on your tablet, too.
But we’re in pre-Apple announcement mode now, and simply porting old media to a new device just won’t sate our needs! So consider this a work in progress, and a speculative one at that. I’ll be updating if and when anything new comes to light.
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