What Apple's iTunes did to the music store, Apple's iPad will do to the newsstand and perhaps even the bookstore. "Some publishers say they also worry iTunes sales leave them at the mercy of Apple, which publishers believe has ambitions for creating an iPad "newsstand" for newspapers and magazines the way it has an iBooks storefront."
As a virtual provider of written material, consumers will find ease and convenience shopping online and stop driving to purchase. For Tower Records and HMV, the lesson was learned far too late; for Barnes & Noble and others, there is still time to adapt and prosper. Create new reasons to come into the store and to even bring the device with them. Make it a social and economic advantage and these new reading devices will be seen as complementary, not destructive to the industry.
And as the subscription business goes, what was once mailed to the home, will now be wirelessly sent. "Some newspaper and magazine companies have resisted selling through iTunes in part because more than seven of every 10 U.S. periodical copies are sold through subscriptions." But subscription revenue has been suffering and iPad could be the shot in the arm for a rebirth. And it allows publishers to update erroneous copy and remain current and time sensitive.
