Apple Tablet Aiming To Redefine Newspapers, Textbooks and Magazines - Apple tablet books - Gizmodo

More Apple tablet speculation and reporting – excerpts:

Steve Jobs said people don't read any more. But Apple is talks with several media companies rooted in print, negotiating content for a "new device." And they're not just going for e-books and mags. They're aiming to redefine print.

[…]

Some I've talked to believe the initial content will be mere translations of text to tablet form. But while the idea of print on the Tablet is enticing, it's nothing the Kindle or any E-Ink device couldn't do. The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video, interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. And with release dates for Microsoft's Courier set to be quite far away and Kindle stuck with relatively static e-ink, it appears that Apple is moving towards a pole position in distribution of this next-generation print content. First, it'll get its feet wet with more basic repurposing of the stuff found on dead trees today.

I found this article via Fake Steve, who added more insightful (and entertaining, and, er, colorful…) analysis.

Somehow I suspect content (book, magazine, newspaper, etc.) publishers aren’t thrilled with the prospect of Apple doing to their business models what it did to the music business.  Of course, there’s also an argument that Apple saved the for-profit music business...

Apple Tablet Aiming To Redefine Newspapers, Textbooks and Magazines - Apple tablet books - Gizmodo