iPad sales remain strong

New York City – Imagine the death of newsstands and the rebirth of newspapers. This scenario may be the light at the end of the tunnel for many in the struggling news industry.

Until Apple launched the iPad last April, the market for offline digital newspapers was a matter of limited geek appeal. Amazon's Kindle, the most popular e-reader on the market prior to the iPad, used E Ink technology to display black and white text. The technology ended there. The iPad's greatest gift to the market might actually be its room for growth.

"The limitations are the imagination of the people who are developing applications for this, and the amount of money that people are willing to spend on those applications limits the amount of money that people are willing to put into those apps," said Jared Cocken, a creative director at the Wonderfactory.

The Wonderfactory, a design agency based in Manhattan, in cooperation with WoodWing Software in the Netherlands, are leading the development of new prototype applications for the iPad. Currently, Wonderfactory is developing applications specifically created to enable publishers of magazines and newspapers to present their content in an iPad-friendly format.

The platforms that the Wonderfactory creates are clean-slate technology, according to Joe McCambley, co-founder of the company. This type of technology allows the publications that Wonderfactory is working with—such as Time magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Martha Stuart Living—can use them however they want. The potential is vast, according to McCambley, and no one knows where it could go in the future.

The iPad is a cross between a data-enabled "smart" phone and a laptop, but without many of the features (no phone, smaller memory). A New York Times survey recently discovered that a larger percentage of cell phone users are using their mobile phones more for data—text messaging, accessing the internet, typing notes—than for making calls. Whether or not people will be willing to give up the ability to make calls on their portage device in exchange for a more versatile device remains in doubt. Still, any efficient salesman in the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in Manhattan will add that the iPad—because it can go online—can also access Skype to make free calls on the internet. The iPad might not be good in emergencies, but it can handle making calls in a relaxed setting.

"They've really, really simplified what about eighty percent of people use computers for," said Cocken, naming online browsing, email and light document editing. "People haven't quite re-associated in the way that they need to to understand that if someone designs an application that performs the functions that you need it to perform, why do you need a computer?"

Apple has considerable weight in the market, which means it can wait for consumers to catch up to a new idea. But will they?

Cocken believes that tablet computers such as the iPad—which currently owns the market—will become the norm in the future. "I would say [in] five years, you'll see the majority of people switching over," he said.