One of the
most persistent reports swirling around the anticipated iSlate is that Apple has been negotiating with book and other publishers to provide the e-reader capabilities of the tablet with enticing content from the get-go.
Today comes further corroboration from Seth Weintraub at his 9 to 5 Mac
blog , based on conversations he's had with two friends in the New York publishing biz.
According to Seth's friends, Apple has been working "very aggressively" on lining up content partners and hopes to have at least one to announce at the event. But we shouldn't expect a lot of content to be available until mid 2010 at least.
Supposedly, Apple is approaching publishers with an
"agency" model for book distribution -- in which it acts as a go-between for publisher and consumer and takes a commission on every book sale -- rather than the wholesale model other e-book distributors use.
The agency model could enable Apple to take the same 30% cut it takes of iPhone App Store purchases while publishers still get more of the selling price than they usually get from the wholesale discount.
Seth's friends also said that while Apple didn't bring any prototypes along, company representatives said that the device wouldn't cost "anywhere near" US$1,000 and that its software would be the real game-changer.
For more on the tablet's software and Jobs's feelings, see Page 2.
Speaking of the iPhone: Flurry, an analytics company that tracks iPhone apps, has
identified app activity from 50 unfamiliar devices, with the activity restricted to Apple's Cupertino headquarters.
"We have a fair level of confidence that we are observing a group of pre-release tablets in testing," the group concludes.
Whatever the device is, Flurry has observed its use with 200 different applications. Games, entertainment, and news & books are the three largest categories of apps being tested, by far.
Marketing VP Peter Farago writes, "With rumors of large newspaper and book publisher deals, combined with its reading-friendly form factor, we speculate that the new Apple tablet will focus heavily on daily media consumption."
Farago continues, "Across all applications detected, there was a strong theme of sharing and/or social interaction including social games, social networking, photo sharing and utilities like file transfer applications."
Oh, and one more thing: supposedly Steve Jobs is very pleased with the final product, which he was reported to have been overseeing even while on medical leave.
According to TechCrunch, several of its sources have independently
claimed that Jobs says of the tablet, "This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done."
