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There are many voices (including mine) that claim Apple does not see the iTunes music store as one of their core products but just as a support tool for another product: the owners of the iPod needed a simple and convenient way to purchase new music to add to their device. Ironically, the store that is just seen as a side business for its owner has become the largest music retailer in the world.

The market dominance of Apple makes many people argue it worries about every new competitor entering the market. Google Music has been hailed as the latest service that will be able to compete with iTunes and even though details have not been announced the music industry is already preparing for a big fight between the two technology giants.

In truth, the launch of a new music service, such as Google Music, probably has little influence on Apple’s real business, which is selling hardware devices.

More recently we have seen a priority shift within Apple’s ‘portable’ product range with the iPhone and iPad become hugely successful. What does that mean for Apples music business?

Quite clearly apps are economically more successful than recorded music and potentially also easier to ‘acquire’ for Apple without the need to negotiate with struggling and demanding major labels. With apps being to the iPhone/iPad what music is to the iPod, I assume Apple is not very concerned with any new music services launching even if they were to take market share within the music space from Apple. We also have to keep in mind that Steve Job and his team have always been less protective in the music space than we give them credit for: there are many music apps for iOS that could be seen as a competitor to Apple.

Of course there have been rumors for a while that Apple wants to launch a ‘cloud based’ music service. I see this less as an action based of the fear of losing market share against someone like Google but just as an upgrade to their existing service – with most Apple devices already being able to connect to the internet is just makes sense not to store music on the local hard drives but in the cloud.

Whatever Google will do around music, it will probably be successful but Apple is not concerned. There will be a Google Music app.

Photo: Mengfei Sh

I’m now making an effort to use my iPad as much as possible. There certainly is a lack of good apps (my brother said this morning that the only good app for the iPad is Safari – and he is a Flash programmer) but I love reading on it. May it be an e-book, pdf files or just a blog post.

However, I’m being constantly reminded that content producers keep making a crucial mistake: they try to use content that worked on one ‘data carrier’ and just copy it on another. This is what the music industry has been trying with albums, hoping they would just sell digitally like they did on the CD. It didn’t work and many music buyers decide just to buy the best track from the album as oppose to the whole package.

Another example and more specific to the iPad: You can subscribe to some ‘traditional’ magazines on the iPad and what you get is essentially a pdf of the print version (Zinio is an example and Music Week does the same). It doesn’t work. The way magazines are designed is specific to the ‘data carrier’ which is paper. The layout and typography doesn’t necessarily work on a screen even though the size of the iPad is similar to a magazine. It also feels very static, knowing that the iPhone can display (some) videos and all you get is text and images. There is also a lot of scrolling involved but I just want to turn the page when I’m done.

This is not to say that magazines will not work on tablet computers, in fact I think they will be one of the main types of content for this new category of devices. But publishers will have to re-think what a magazine can do. One company who seems to be on the forefront again: Wired magazine have showcased their iPad version before it even came out. Let’s hope there will be a lot to follow.

I had the iPad since its release in the States so I had some time to play around with it. One thing that has to be said is that there still aren’t that many great apps but this isn’t the devices fault. It’s my fault for buying it so early. Also, the fact that I can’t buy apps on the iPad with my UK iTunes account is inconvenient. I have to buy the apps in iTunes on my mac and then sync them over which really disturbs the experience. Those issues will work themselves out over the next few months.

The biggest criticism for the iPad seems to be the fact that it’s hard to say what its purpose is. “The iPad is just a big iPod Touch” I hear a lot. And this couldn’t be truer. And this is why it’s so great.

The size of the device is what makes it so valuable for the media and entertainment space. Even though functionality on the iPad might be something we have already seen on the iPhone and iPod Touch it feels very much different just because the device is bigger. Consuming media on a bigger interface doesn’t only decrease the amount of scrolling or page turning but changes the overall experience. Everyone who tried to read a book on the iPhone will know what I’m talking about. It works fine but reading a book on the bigger device is actually pleasant whereby reading longs texts on the smaller screen means endless scrolling so you spend more time interacting with the device as oppose to taking in the text.

Another example: I normally use kayak for my flight planning and they have released an iPad app early on. The big app does exactly what the iPhone app does but the overall result is very much different just due to the amount of information displayed at the same time.

The lack of additional functionality on the iPad is not a weakness but a strength. And if you ask yourself whether you need one: no, you don’t. But you want one if you like to consume media and entertainment digitally.