Are publishers waking up from their dream about apps? — Tech News and Analysis

Two years on and Matthew Ingram at Gigaom has an interesting take on how publishers are re-assessing the potential impact of the tablet market on their industry.

Its safe to say that while the tablet market has had a massive impact on consumer use of the the web and mobile in general, damaging PC and laptop sales, huge dual screen use at peak TV time etc. But has it had the positive impact magazine and newspaper publishers were hoping for?

Jason Pontin, publisher of MIT Tech Review has published a scathing piece on his experience creating an app for iPad. He thinks that from the consumers point of view many publisher’s app are a step back from the work they’ve done on the web. Add in Apple’s 30% commission…

Its gratifying that my very own Project gets a namecheck as one that bucks the trend of being a walled garden, print repica. Yes I know I may have changed my tune somewhat but I’d agree with Gigaom on this, for some traditional ‘print’ publishers, the bigger opportunity seems to me to be HTML5 and web based apps.

I’d argue not so for brands however who are less reliant on cover price to benefit from app publishing and the the inherent discoverability and promotion that comes from having an app in the app store rather than somewhere on the web. Certainly iPad users are spending a lot more when shopping on iPad.

Interesting times but I wouldn’t make a call so soon. After all, we’re only two years down the road.

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