Forecast: you’re going to see a lot more of this in the next few weeks – publishers announcing iPad apps, before the they’ve even had a chance to touch the sacred tablet.
Bournemouth tech and entertainment magazine publisher Imagine Publishing says it’s released “iPhone and iPad editions” for all 20 of its titles.
Technically, that’s true – though iPad won’t be on shelves until March, iPhone apps will run on the tablet, albeit at their original resolution, which won’t take advantage of iPad’s larger screen.
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has only just released its latest software developers’ kit, which will let publishers write apps with list and content views on iPad’s single, bigger display, rather than across multiple iPhone page flicks. But, so hard is it becoming for some content owners to get discovered amongst the 140,000 existing iPhone apps, there may be a brief window of high visibility in being one of the first native iPad app publishers.
Imagine’s model – charging for the magazine app, which includes the current issue at no further cost, but charging extra within the app for back-issues or a subscription. The apps are built by PixelMags, which actually lets users flick a finger to turn a real-looking page…
If the larger iPad, as well as existing iPhone, supports this feature (and not just iPad’s split-screen list integration) the gadget could soon deliver us those e-magazine wet dreams the concept videos promise.