(http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/4/2010/01/500x_tablet_printingpress_2.jpg) (http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/4/2010/01/tablet_printingpress_2.jpg)The Apple tablet (http://gizmodo.com/tag/appletablet/) could change everything. That's what people are hoping for (http://www.theawl.com/2010/01/waiting-for-the-apple-tablet-with-joel-johnson), revolution. But revolutions don't actually happen overnight, especially if you're talking about turning around an entire diseased, lumbering industry, like publishing.
The medium is the message, supposedly. The iPod was a flaming telegram to the music industry; the iPhone, a glowing billboard about the way we'd consume software. The Apple tablet? Possibly no less than the reinvention of the digital word. If you look very generally at the content that defined the device—or maybe vice versa—the iPod danced with music, the iPhone's slung to apps and, as we were first in reporting (http://gizmodo.com/5370252/apple-tablet-to-redefine-newspapers-textbooks-and-magazines) a few months ago, the tablet's bailiwick might very well be publishing.
Since then, the number of publishers—of newspapers, magazines and books—reported to be talking to Apple has exploded: NYT, Conde Nast (http://gizmodo.com/tag/condenast/), McGraw Hill, Oberlin, HarperCollins (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703405704575015362653644260.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEADTop), the "six largest" trade publishers (http://www.thebookseller.com/news/110213-us-publishers-seek-new-digital-model-with-apple.html.rss), and Time (http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100120/no-time-inc-for-the-tablet-next-week/), among many others, are making noise about splaying their content on the tablet. A giant iPod not only for video, photos and music, but for words. That's what they're lining up to make ritual sacrifices for. Publishers want this, whatever it is.
Source: Pondering The Apple Tablet's Print Revolution (http://gizmodo.com/5456803/pondering-the-apple-tablets-print-revolution)