Jobs: Apple tablet may revolutionise newspaper industry

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 21, 2010 at 3:29 PM

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs suggested that he may be able to restructure industries such as textbooks, newspapers and television, the Wall Street Journal reported today. "People familiar with the talks" said Apple has been discussing possible ventures with book, magazine and newspaper publishers such as the New York Times Co., Condé Nast Publications Inc. and HarperCollins Publishers, as well as its owner, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

According to a survey by market research company Retrevo, 70 percent of respondents will not spend more than US$700 on Apple's upcoming tablet device, accoding to Computer World today. Seventy-five percent said they wouldn't acquire the tablet unless it had a battery life of more than six hours, reported ZDNet.

PC World mentioned that 39 percent of respondents said they would buy the device only if it had a 3G connection while 44 percent said that they would not purchase it if it included a monthly data plan. "There's a wave of demand out there that supersedes what we usually see in the computer electronics industry. It's very possible for this to be a huge product for Apple, and to have huge ripple effects in the PC and e-book reader industries," said Paul Carton, research director at ChangeWave Research, wrote MSNBC. Apple is set to unveil the device on January 27, according to the Washington Post.