Unless you’ve been hiding in a wine cave (in which case I’m envious), you are aware of the recently announced Apple iPad. There has been wide a range of reactions to the product. Some people are disappointed because the product doesn’t seem to have exceeded the pre-announcement leaks. Others, perhaps dedicated Blackberry or Microsoft Windows users, appear bored by it. Still others are so excited that they’ve been texting their credit card numbers to Steve Jobs from the moment he did the big reveal.

Two months from now, the product will actually be available to you and I. It will be a game changer in many business segments, a new variety of electronic crack for millions of individuals. Apple has the marketing power, fan base and overall clout to sell huge volumes of the iPad. They have the industry ties, developer community and online stores to deliver a massive array of content. The product does a lot more than an Amazon Kindle 2, is much smaller and lighter than a laptop and costs about the same as an unlocked iPhone 3GS.

Fine, you say. Why write about the iPad on a wine blog? Two reasons. The first and most important is that I believe the Apple iPad is going to have a huge and beneficial impact on both blogging and social media. And, since wine lovers are among the most active users of both, I think that they (you) will benefit disproportionately. Second, prior to my work in the wine industry, I spent 22 years in the consumer electronics business. I’ve worked closely with Apple, their developers and their competitors in computing and hand held devices. These are products and markets that I know very well.

There are many different angles one could take in discussing the iPad and its upcoming place in the market. I am going to focus on how it will affect media consumption and media creation, especially blogs and social media.

Here are the five ways that the Apple iPad will bring huge changes to social media and blogging.
The Apple iPad will result in more pervasive use of social media and online content. The screen size and interface make Apple iPad a great device for reading web-based media such as blogs. You can view an entire page in vertical orientation. Photos will be quickly and beautifully rendered. Text can be larger and more legible than on a smartphone. Safari and/or applets will allow blog pages to be downloaded and stored for reading when Wi-Fi and 3G networks aren’t available, so blogs will be read on buses and trains, treadmills and park benches. Reading blogs in cafes will now look chic instead of  geek and whipping out an iPad in a restaurant (sound OFF please) will probably be as acceptable as would a magazine or newspaper (at least in California).

The Apple iPad is also large enough to allow social media apps such as Tweetdeck, Seesmic, MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn to offer full-screen versions. (Did Facebook know something about iPad when they decided to redesign their UI with smaller tabs? Have you seen VaynerMedia's article on redesigning your Facebook presence?) Nearly every aspect of social media apps will be better on the iPad than on smartphones: typing messages, tracking friends’ updates, following links, viewing photos, videos and maps. Using iPad for these things instead of your phone also means that the phone’s battery won’t be depleted as quickly.

The Apple iPad will allow for richer and more effective online advertising than do current mobile platforms. Smart phones have the reach and frequency of use to be ideal platforms for advertising. But the small screen sizes makes creating compelling ads nearly impossible. The Apple iPad will clearly allow for ads similar to those designed for viewing on a computer. And, since iPad is location-aware, ads can be very targeted. This is all good news for bloggers, social media companies and other content providers for whom advertising is (or is hoped to be) an important source of revenue.

The Apple iPad will drive companies still primarily rooted in print, broadcast or cable to increase and enhance their online content and social media usage. This seems like a big impact for a single device. However, I believe iPad, subsequent versions from Apple, and its competitors have the opportunity to do for newspapers and magazines what the iPod did for (or to) music. Clearly, Steve Jobs believes this to be true. Not only will iPad provide a very good mobile platform for consumption of digital content, it will accelerate the movement of consumers away from paper media.

Newspapers and magazines are not interactive. They aren’t “social.” They can’t be updated. They don’t offer video or audio, etc. The main things that have maintained their popularity so far are portability, a tactile/visual nature that some people find attractive and momentum. As we know from the mass layoffs and bankruptcies in print media, the momentum is now negative. iPad can hold thousands of magazines while offering what appears to be a fun, tactile experience. No, the screen doesn’t look like a paper page. But it is full color and won’t leave you with ink on your fingers. And if you subscribe to a digital newspaper, you won’t have soggy news on rainy days. The justification for sticking with print as a consumer is now much harder to make, unless you simply can't afford to buy something like the iPad.

If print (and broadcast which has also been losing substantial viewer hours to online pursuits) don’t embrace iPad (and the internet in general) more than they have, these media companies are truly doomed. Of this they are well aware. It is not the need to evolve that they question, but the business models and ways of formatting and distributing their content.
Fortunately, the enhanced advertising potential discussed above offers them a way to offer both advertisers and readers greater value. There will be more visually compelling ads. There could be time-sensitive digital coupons pushed to location aware devices. Amazon offers product suggestions based on what you’ve recently purchased. Why not offer suggestions of stores to visit based on the one you’ve just left? (The time to stop “Big Brother” intrusion by marketers, government and your neighbor down the street came and went years ago. Privacy is now an illusion that we are jarred out of with increasing frequency.)

With the improvements in interface and convenience that iPad offers over computers and smart phones, online-subscription-based business models may actually work for the biggest and best publishers. Yes, broad availability of free content will continue to work against subscriptions. However, many niches will always be hard to address without a serious revenue model. And, at some point, (I hope) people will tire of reading opinions about news rather than the hard, corroborated facts typically provided only by teams of genuine journalists.

To really capitalize on these opportunities though, the media companies absolutely must  aggressively use social media and court bloggers. A newspaper or magazine can no longer count on being the go-to destination for whatever genre of content it offers. The millions of digital voices screaming news bits and sound bytes can’t be shouted over. They must be employed. (This will also offer a lot of opportunities for bloggers to promote themselves and, occasionally, get paid by big media.)

The Apple iPad will increase and improve “blogging-on-the-go.” If you are a blogger today and want to post something from a remote location you have two choices: lug a laptop or deal with the limitations of your smartphone. The Apple iPads with 3G offer connectivity that is at least as good as a notebook or smartphone. (Note: All iPads are sold unlocked. Verizon and others will soon be shipping a sim card in the iPad’s chosen format.) Apple iWorks applications and others from 3rd parties will offer excellent options for content creation. Importing photos from your camera (wireless, via USB, or with the SD Card dongle) will be easy. And, with full-featured web access, using online blogging platforms such as WordPress or wordpress.com, Movable Type or Typepad, SquareSpace and even CMS systems such as Drupal and Joomla should be possible. Live blogging will be even more prevalent. This compelling immediacy will increase readership too.

The Apple iPad will combine three types of viral marketing: online, physical pass along, and voyeuristic. We’ve covered online viral marketing, but what of the others? Handing one’s iPad to a friend so that they can read an article or see a message will be as natural as handing them a section of the newspaper. No, you won’t want them to wander off with it, but it should be less uncomfortable to hand over an iPad than your smart phone. And since the format is larger, your friend will be able to see the item of interest quickly and clearly.

Voyeuristic viral marketing? Yep. The Apple iPad is LED-backlit, high resolution, has a viewing angle of up to 178 degrees. The viewing angle is intended to make for more comfortable viewing and allow you to watch movies on it with friends. But it also means that viewing content on iPad in public invites the public to view your content too. The person standing behind you in line at Starbucks will be able to see tmz.com headlines on your iPad as easily as they do those in your People magazine today, as will the person sitting next to you on the train. Your reading habits will, unbeknownst to you, influence (and perhaps shock) your neighbors. You will passively drive traffic to your favorite blogs.

The Apple iPad won’t be perfect. It’s a first generation device. But, it’s a very good start with the genuine potential to take social media, blogs and the conversion of print to digital several leaps forward. And it will force Apple's competitors to step up their game too. (Amazon responded in their own way today.) In the meantime, I’ll be standing in line to get an iPad on day one. And I'll be blogging or tweeting with it from a wine tasting as soon as the battery is charged.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2010 NorCal Wine. All rights reserved.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more.
Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook.
Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

| More...