With the launch of iBooks, Apple has now entered the book publishing market. They didn’t announce any subscription models (but really, who doesn’t think they’re around the corner?). But they have 5 major book publishers on board who are supplying content to the iPad.

To me, the most interesting question is: what is the barrier to entry into the iBooks store?

One of the ways iTunes has really revolutionized the content game is in how it has leveled the playing field for content producers. Complete amateurs can submit podcasts for distribution. One-man operations can develop software that sits “on the shelf” right next to the biggest developers out there. From what I hear, submitting music for purchase on iTunes is also not nearly the ordeal that old-school music distribution used to be.

So – what will it be like with iBooks? Is there going to be some avenue for small-time writers to submit their works for sale/distribution? How hard will that be? Would there be some kind of editorial review process? (That’d probably be the biggest sticking point, or point of controversy).

There could be a whole new world of self publishing created, almost over night. I’d love to read it.

Really?

It’s funny how cyclical all of this is. The rumor mill leading up to the iPad was a perfect echo of the buzz that preceded the iPhone. And the initial reaction has been just as articulate (“No unicorns? FAiL!1!”).

The OS criticisms are following a pattern as well. The lament du jour, the lack of multitasking, sounds like another complaint of the past – the whole copy & paste fiasco.

For years (or so it seemed), every pundit was kvetching about how the iPhone didn’t have copy & paste. I too, bemoaned it’s omission. Then a funny thing happened.

We got copy & paste.

I suspect my reaction was shared by a lot of people: “Yay! Finally! That’s neat – it works great. Neato. Woo hoo.” Then I proceeded to use it four times since.

Apple probably thinks the same thing will happen with multitasking and third party apps. Remember – multitasking does exist, but only with certain Apple native apps – like listening to your iPod music while doing almost anything else.

Will multitasking be useful in the iPhone or iPad form factor? I think its practicality will be limited. That much is evident in that most pundits all tend to use the same example – “What if I want to use Pandora and ___ “. They all use this example because the easiest multitasking scenario to grasp is listening to music while you do something else. Which you can already do, you just have to do it Apple’s way. I’m not knocking Pandora – it’s a great service and a great App – but not enough to rewrite an OS over.

I buy Apple’s argument that they haven’t been able to get multitasking to work without battery life loss. When they looked at their options – they went with maintaining good functionality and living with the absence of more.

Is it an omission, and do I hope to see it addressed? Absolutely. I just don’t think it’s as big of a deal as people make it out to be.

The short version: it’s a big iPod Touch, with a 3G option.

The long version: it’s a big iPod Touch, with a 3G option, a lot more possibilities and a killer price.

There seems to be a lot of negative reaction in the tech media. A lot of “disappointed”, “let down”, “meh” reactions. Some people are never happy.

Of COURSE it wouldn’t live up to every wild rumor and speculation. There have been rumors on this churning for years – and it’s been fever pitch for about 3 months now. If it did everything the rumors said it would do, it would have to shoot unicorns out of it’s 30 pin port in order to really be a surprise.

What irks me most, though, is while this was predominantly a hardware announcement, the biggest complaints all tend to be software or content related.

• There’s no multi-tasking. Yet. That’s a software issue that can (and to some degree will, I’m sure) be addressed in future OS updates. And it could possibly be backwards-compatible with old iPhones. It could quite reasonably argued that Apple’s insistence on one-task-at-a time has been a wise move. One need only read up on the Palm Pre’s battery life for verification. Would multi-tasking have been nice to have today? Sure. Will the experience be hurt – not as much as if it were implemented poorly.

• No subscription content. Again – yet. I’m sure some deals are in the works. I’m surprised as anyone that this was absent. But the possibility is obviously there. In fact, all of the infrastructure is already in place. The deals just have to happen.

• No camera. Okay, it’s an obvious hardware omission. I’m thinking we’ll see this in rev 2 – the curious inclusion of a microphone points to it. However, if it had a camera built in, it would be nowhere near $499 to start. If I’m Apple, and I was looking at $499 sans camera, and a $699ish starting price with a camera, I don’t think it would be a hard decision to make.

So, what did work?

• As an artsy-type, the single thing that blew my mind was the Brushes demo. I can’t WAIT to get my mitts on that on the iPad. Talk about a permanent sketchbook. I’m positively giddy about that.

• The ebooks look pretty slick. Unfortunately, this is the kind of thing you just need to spend time with to gauge whether or not it will be a pleasant reading experience.

• Video playback looks really nice, too. It’ll be much nicer to watch a movie on a plane than on an iPhone.

This will be continued to be hashed and re-hashed for the next 60 days, I’m sure. I can’t wait to hold one in my had.

I hear from the guy standing next to me on the Metro that his cousin saw the device in a dream and that it shoots unicorns out the front. Then I remembered that I should probably keep my headphones in.

I think that one of the most compelling nuggets of information floating around is that Apple has made content deals with book publishers like HarperCollins. The obvious application is that the tablet would be a device for e-books. $8.99 – here’s that novel you never read in 11th grade.

What I think would be more compelling is a premium fee for all of the books in a given imprint. $199 and you can read all of the romance books you can stomach. Seriously, though – what if there is a whole series of technical reference books that could suddenly have at your fingertips? Browser-based versions of just such a service exist; but the UX leaves a lot to be desired.

As a designer, the related facet of this idea of e-books is how they are designed. Right now, on devices such as the Kindle, e-books are little more than copy/paste jobs. If this is a full color tablet – imagine what layouts could look like. I’m sure typography will be a tricky issue, but not moreso than it is currently on the web. But step by step illustrations would suddenly be much more compelling. Why not embedded video, too?

What could be most intriguing is how much will it affect the way we consume information. I can’t wait to find out.