Installed Base projections
iPad sales are outstripping iPhone sales 3-1. Sales in 2010 are projected to be 5 million.
Impressive, but small in comparison to the iPhone and iPod Touch installed base, currently at around 75 millions.
And then of course there's the estimated at 1.74 billion people using the ol' Internet.

Content Revenue Streams
We know that the iPad user will have a voracious appetite for content. Cupertino will know a lot about what he or she likes, thanks to sophisticated user data that will flow out of iPads. They may even be prepared to sell it to you!
If iPad content sales tracks anything like the trajectory of iPhone apps, (which has generated 3 billion downloads from 150,000 tiles) analysts are projecting $US2.5 billion in 2010 revenues.
So there's new money to be made for content developers who have done well on the iPhone.
Australia's Firemint makers of Flight Control, for instance, must be salivating at the prospect of the bigger screen, better graphics and faster processors on the iPad. They recently announced that their iPhone game Flight Control has passed the 2m sales mark and iPad versions of Real Racing and Flight Control are imminent.

Meanwhile, outside the Apple Corral..
And this is the Bad part of the equation. On one side is an audience, hungry for exciting content with a proven storefront for browsing and paying.
On the other side, the content creators who have to author all iPad material with specialised tools and have it approved by what some wags have called the Cupertino Politburo.And pay 30% royalty to Steve if it sells through his store, and his store only.
The hurdles for getting content (let alone Australian content) on to the iPad seem pretty high. Unless you can get in through the side door (via YouTube or other video aggregators) and get paid with one of their emerging business models, getting long-form video content into the iPads of a global market will be challenging.
Getting short-form infotainment content would seem to be a easier route. Our first iPhone infotainment app (Poh's Kitchen) due to be released for the iPhone soon, is bound to end up on the iPad.
Something like a localised version of the TED Conference series, one of the best iPhone apps, could be a goer.

Bigger consequences
If the iPad is really going to be the content go-to device and development is going to be relatively expensive and exclusive, it could have some unforeseen consequences for existing business models.

I’ve got an iPad sitting on my desk next to me and it is a gorgeous and compelling device. It doesn’t, as we know, have a camera or a 3G connection or multitask or run Flash or any of those things – but it does have an Apple logo on it – and I guess that is what is most important.
iPad is not the first tablet, and is unlikely to be the best (check out the Joo Joo: https://thejoojoo.com/, the WePad: http://www.wepad.mobi/en or even the Microsoft Courier: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/microsofts-courier-digital-journal-exclusive-pictures-and-de/ for alternatives).
However, since Apple made portable music sexy three years after the MP3 player was invented with the iPod, and then went on to revolutionise the mobile phone industry with the iPhone – we now know that what Apple thinks is cool is likely to set the standard.

A step forward for Content Creators?

Yet, in the midst of all this (and it is compellingly beautiful to hold and play with), there is a sense that the iPad might be a retrogressive step. Jeff Jarvis (http://www.buzzmachine.com/2010/04/04/ipad-danger-app-v-web-consumer-v-creator/) comments ...” media companies and advertisers are embracing it so fervently, because they think it returns us all to their good old days when we just consumed, we didn’t create, when they controlled our media experience and business models and we came to them."
He cites the example of the Time Magazine app which is, effectively, a glorious eBook-cum-magazine for $4.99 a week – with basically none of the consumer interactivity or engagement that even the website offers.

From a user perspective, the large screen is a playground, and the ability to ‘dock’ a navigation window (especially when in landscape mode) is fabulous and a real boon to navigation. From a developer perspective – the whole world just go messier, what with another screen to develop for. And ,in all honesty, an iPhone app on an iPad screen just looks cheap and low res.
The gossip around is that to add an iPad version to an iPhone applications adds about 20% in costs (some redesign, better graphics, additional navigation options etc), and the price point looks to be about double.
However, getting your content (app, video etc) onto the iPad is still at the capricious mercy of Apple; finding an audience is still completely up to you and if you want them to really be able to engage and share your content – this might not be the right device.
Added to that, independent screen content producers will still have trouble getting their content up in the apps store – making YouTube the main option. And the most common form of video on the web, Flash Video, won’t work on the iPad.
It’s too big to be a pocket device, too bulky to replace my eBook reader (which does play video, including Flash), lacks the connectivity to be my main communication device and is to limited to replace my netbook.
It is gorgeous, sleek, intuitive and desirable from its soft protective case to its 9.7” 1024 x 768 screen. It is a wonderful screen to read on, OK to type on and brilliant to watch video on. But all of those are one-way interactions and we really are moving to a 2.0 interactive world.

Last words to Cory Doctorow (http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/02/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either.html):
“If you want to live in the creative universe where anyone with a cool idea can make it and give it to you to run on your hardware, the iPad isn't for you”. “If you want to live in the fair world where you get to keep (or give away) the stuff you buy, the iPad isn't for you”. “If you want to write code for a platform where the only thing that determines whether you're going to succeed with it is whether your audience loves it, the iPad isn't for you”.

Talking of NAB, check out Accenture’s great summary on the hot things coming out of this years NAB expo ( http://tinyurl.com/y7bql9k ) and pardon the plug but Viocorp’s Rachel Dixon features around the 19minute mark!

Jen covered the pros and cons of the device exceptionally well, so without having seen one in the flesh not much more to cover from my point of view. There are some great reviews at Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/03/apple-ipad-review/) and Crunchgear (http://tinyurl.com/yz5kxsj). The second incarnation will no doubt address the shortcomings, whilst other manufacturer products will undoubtedly drive feature sets and benefit the consumer.

Looking at the book market, what I find of interest is the monetary effect to authors, the publishers and the retailers of books, including the libraries, compared to the music industry.
Will authors get compensated appropriately? Rupert Murdoch whose properties include HarperCollins, last week expressed concern during a conference call. “We don’t like the Amazon model of selling everything at $9.99,” he said. “We think it really devalues books and it hurts all the retailers.” How will the publishers change to accommodate the new device? How will retailers manage as the sale of physical units decline? Can an independent author sell their novel direct through the iPad bypassing the publishers and retailer?
PwC, the consultancy, predicts consumer book demand will slip from $72.6bn (€53.1bn, £46.5bn) in 2008 to $71.9bn in 2013. Spending on electronic books is expected to rise from $1.1bn to $4.1bn over the same period. (Source FT.com ‘Electronic commerce: A page is turned’ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1aca5734-14fe-11df-ad58-00144feab49a.html)

From a tactile perspective, how will consumer behaviour change? Will you curl up on the sofa, on the sun lounger, in bed reading a novel on the iPad?

Moving to the publishing industry, the iPad could ironically save the newspaper industry. The Financial Times recently commented that ‘Publishers fear the bite of Apple’s revenue model’ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/746b73de-1a7d-11df-bef7-00144feab49a.html

Personally, I find the broadsheet physically challenging yet I voraciously consume the news on the iPhone. Having a larger viewing experience appeals to me. I’d happily pay to subscribe to news and general interest publications on it, more than I do with physical subscriptions. Though for males, the reluctance to carry a bag means could see usage of the iPad be dominated by females.

And from a device perspective carrying a laptop, a phone and an eReader seems excessive so there will be some conflict there, with device convergence inevitable in due course.

My response doesn’t provide any answers, and poses more questions, but gee I can’t wait to see one. Neither could Iggy the cat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40&feature=player_embedded