Apple aims for a huge market bite

By SIMON DUKE FOR MAILONLINE
Updated: 14:37 EST, 2 April 2010

Apple is taking aim at another traditional media industry with today's release of its much-hyped iPad in the US.

Tens of thousands of Americans are tipped to snap up the tablet computer on the first day of sales.

The clamour for the gadget is expected to build over the coming months. It runs on the same software as the group's trailblazing iPhone but boasts a ten-inch touch-screen. Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley forecasts Apple will ship as many as 10million by Christmas. The iPad, which will cost between £330 and £524 in the US, will go on sale in the UK later this month.

On general release: US Apple customers can now get their hands on a new iPad

The gadget threatens to shake up the publishing industry in the same way Apple has turned the music and mobile phone industries upside down over the past decade.

John Makinson, the chief executive of Penguin Books (owned by Pearson), describes the iPad as an 'epiphany' for the publishing world as it grapples with the relentless rise of the digital book. 'It will introduce a large new

audience to the reading of e-books,' he told the Mail. 'The transition from physical to digital is a momentous moment for the industry.'

A slew of the world's largest publishers including Penguin have already signed up with Apple, making hundreds of thousands of titles available through the forthcoming iBooks store.

The threat to the Amazon's Kindle reader and its e-book operation, which currently dominate this fledgling market, are clear.

Publishers have long desired to break free from Amazon's tight grip over pricing. By contrast, Apple will allow publishers complete freedom over what they charge readers.

But the iPad - dubbed an 'iPhone on steroids' - could have ramifications far beyond the publishing world.

It represents a direct challenge to netbooks - the mini laptop computers that are the faster growing corner of the PC industry.

Games console makers such as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft will also be looking over their shoulders with trepidation. Legions of games developers are likely to rush out applications for the iPad as they have done for the iPhone.

If Morgan Stanley is right, the iPad will cement Apple's reputation as the comeback kid of the technology industry. Having been almost crushed by the Microsoft juggernaut in the mid 1990s, boss Steve Jobs has orchestrated a remarkable revival in the tech giant's fortunes since returning to the company he founded in 1997.

A succession of crowd-pleasing technology - starting with the iBook laptop, then swiftly followed by the iPod and then the iPhone - has propelled Apple back to the top of the technology tree.