Apple Netbook Will Fill Newspaper Void 51 comments
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As a dedicated reader of newspapers since I was 5 years old, it’s really sad to see the downfall of this great American tradition. Print subscriptions are way down, ad revenue is drying up, and Americans are becoming more and more accustomed to the up-to-date news found on the Internet. The New York Times (NYT) stock is down below $4 a share. Gannett (GCI), the owner of USA Today is down to $2 a share. McClatchy (MNI), the owner of papers like the Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, and the Charlotte Observer, is down to $.45 a share. Mike Simonton, an industry analyst, says “In 2009 and 2010, all the two newspaper markets will become one-newspaper markets and you will start to see the one-newspaper markets become no-newspaper markets" (NY Times).
In the end, we all knew that mainstream reliance on newspapers couldn’t last forever but it’s still hard to watch. As if newspapers didn’t have enough to worry about, now they are about to get hit by the Apple (AAPL) train. Reports that Apple is ordering 10-inch touchscreens have been confirmed by Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters. Many are speculating that these will be used for Apple’s new netbook but I think this device will be much different than what we’re used to seeing in the netbook space. As Apple has done with the Mac, the iPod, and the iPhone, I expect it to revolutionize this sector of the market.
There currently exists a major void of access with the Internet. I’ll call this void the newspaper void. Newspapers are the perfect size to read and they’re portable. The iPhone screen is not the perfect size to sit down and read a newspaper, I’m good for ten minutes of reading on the iPhone screen; anything more is too much for my eyes to handle. It’s great as a quick reference, but it is primarily a phone. My laptop has a good sized screen but the clunky keyboard and lack of universal WiFi access make it hard to use as a newspaper replacement. This new netbook/tablet/E-book reader/whatever you want to call it will fill a niche. Users will be able to take it on the subway, take it in the car, take it on the back porch, take it to breakfast, take it to the pool, take it wherever you would normally go to read a magazine or newspaper.
Apple has seen enough evidence that the netbook space is big enough for them to enter. IT research company Gartner expects PC sales to drop by 12% in 2009, but they don’t think that drop will come from netbooks. In fact, they are forecasting netbook sales to grow from 11.7 million units sold in 2008 to 21 million in 2009. In this recession, consumers are shopping price and Apple will benefit from having a sub $600 alternative. I would imagine that this device will come with a built in 3G Internet connection so that universal internet access is not a problem. It won’t have a keyboard like the other netbooks do, and it won’t be made to do much more than read the news from the Internet, watch television shows and movies, and play games from the app store. Once again, Apple is the true innovator of the technology revolution going on in this day and age.
Disclosure: Long AAPL.
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Weren't you the same writer who a few months ago was bragging about how wonderful the world is for short sellers of bank stocks?
You spew nonsense on your best days.
Jay Fredrickson
i-95south.com
One word: Newton.
Nice try, Jay!
"This is a demographically necessary product, an iTablet that is big enough for the aging population to see web pages clearly and watch movies and play games without eye strain.
"This will be THE ultimate portable PDA / computer / gaming device. It will incorporate all the perks of the iPhone plus a better camera, videocam, videoconferencing, voice recognition, cut-n-paste, the whole shebang.
"It will be far more than the sweet resurrection of the Newton and like the Newton it will be embraced by the medical community, scientists, business ppl and all those who want to stay connected and organized and keep everything easily accessible on the go at their fingertips.
"The iTablet will be a major success, fun, extremely useful and a total gamechanger."
To which I added: "Don't forget the e-book reader and digital voice recorder!" I believe that Amazon's recent announcement that it will make its Kindle-format items (including periodicals) viewable on the iPhone is a precursor to doing so on the iWidget (or whatever apple calls it).
Of course you so proudly bend over backwards to get on TV and deal with the crooks at thestreet.com that you are part of the problem. They'll take anyone willing to serve their agendas to screw investors. They especially like green guys like you because they use you as a puppet, without you understanding what's going on. Good luck.
Then compare this idea with the success of the Kindle - which shouldn't exist based on the "Bill Gates" comments above. Add in the ability for newspapers to sell advertising in their editorial space (which the Kindle does not allow) and you've got more than a strong niche, you've got real progress.
What difference does it make what Bill Gates had in his office in 1996? Where do I buy one of those Bill Gates tablets? Did it have internet access everywhere? The point of the article isn't that Apple invented anything, only an really dense person would fail to figure that out. The article speculates about a complete product with key features being low price, built-in 3G internet, and Apple's focus on usability. That thing you are thinking of had none of those features.
On Mar 13 08:47 AM jay fredrickson wrote:
> Bill Gates had a tablet in his office in 1996 and at that time he
> said this is where the future of newspapers is going. To say that
> Apple is an innovator is ridiculous. Gates and his team have had
> this idea for more than a decade. This news is so old, I wonder what
> credibility you have in this space.
> Weren't you the same writer who a few months ago was bragging about
> how wonderful the world is for short sellers of bank stocks?
> You spew nonsense on your best days.
>
> Jay Fredrickson
>
> i-95south.com
i expect something like a larger iTouch, maybe the size of a kindle... i read books on my iphone all the time and also listen to audio books there, but it's hard to speed read on the iphone because there's not enough viewable content all at once. i'd prefer a paperback book size to a 10 inch screen that was mentioned above but i'm sure Apple will make whatever they do great, lightweight, intuitive and reliable...and cool.
... Anywhere, anytime access to our content via the web at MobileMe.
Apple can charge whatever it wants for the MacCloud, for the connectivity, and for a subscription to MobileMe. And it can collect for purchases of software, books, audio, video, whatever, which can then reside online, always available to the MacCloud user. All of these revenues can flow directly to Apple.
... Money is the ultimate content stream.
Google around for "Knowledge Navigator" and you'll see Apple was over a decade ahead of Bill Gates and his copy cat criminals.
Apple has set the direction for the computer industry since 1976, Microsoft has done nothing to contribute, so get your facts straight.
On Mar 13 08:47 AM jay fredrickson wrote:
> Bill Gates had a tablet in his office in 1996 and at that time he
> said this is where the future of newspapers is going. To say that
> Apple is an innovator is ridiculous.
A true iTablet with good battery life would be a welcome product in many schools with few of the drawbacks of the Gates device.
You can read a bit more here:
<adverlab.blogspot.com/...;
Before the lab was set up, individual KR newspapers were looking at electronic alternatives to printed newspapers, such as delivery by fax, dial-up bulletin boards (this was before the Web took off), etc.
Many in the industry knew times were a-changin' way back then.
If newspapers go away, as so many people now want to predict, the flow of reporting also dries up on the internet, as well as tv and radio (which get much of their material from newspapers as well).
The internet isn't a source of news, just a way to access it. Someone, in the end, has to finance the gathering of news.
Hold and read it with two hands. Right thumb squeeze to move page down. Left thumb squeeze to move page up. Use your finger to highlight words, sentences and information. Talk into it to annotate or to remind yourself to pick up milk and toilet paper on the rare day it goes on sale. Plug in earphones to listen to music while you read. Finger gesture to fill screen with ten inches of Porn. Finger gesture again to zoom into NASDAQ for the latest price of Apple stock. All while standing on the Unemployment line.
Oh, yeah, there are no more newspapers!
[For Jay above to credit Gates demonstrates utter ignorance - and it's inexcusable to attack the writer the way he has.]
Everyone who is using the iPhone, or Mac computers, know that this is going to be the product that truly revolutionises our computing lifestyles, of that there is no doubt.
Apples' OSX is already shown to be a mighty flexible OS, and it is impossible to see it not creating a touch based game changer sitting between the laptop and the iPhone.
Expect long long lines (queues)...
Thanks,
Stephen Heywood
thetechbuzz.net
ttbn.thetechbuzz.net