I was asked recently about my experience with the iPad and how it impacts on my use of the iPhone. The question was related to this Nielsen research on Who is Buying the iPad, and Will They Also Buy an iPhone?  Here are my thoughts:

I now use my iPad for most of my media browsing (online magazines, video, newspapers, websites, other new media) and even presentations, particularly when I'm mobile. However, I leave my iPad at home or the office when I don't want to lose or damage it when I'm going somewhere like to the football, or out for the night. That's when I'm quite comfortable reading and surfing on my iPhone, as I have been for a few years now. I'm happy to check my email or social media on whatever device is closest at hand or most convenient.

As Steve Jobs said, the iPad is the third device, and more people are starting to understand what this means.

The Nielsen report said, "Twenty-five percent of likely smartphone upgraders who have not yet owned an iPhone or iPad, indicate that they would purchase an Apple iPhone as their next smartphone. But when we asked iPad owners who do not have an iPhone this same question, this number more than doubled to 51%. Clearly, exposure to Apple’s iOS creates a very positive pre-disposition to purchasing an iPhone."

This is not just a factor of liking the Apple iOS. It is understanding the power of syndication between the iPhone, iPad and MacBook. I'm typing on my MacBook Pro, my iPhone is sitting next to me waiting for calls, and my iPad is ready to take to the cafe or even pick up and use as a separate media browsing device (that includes email, calendars etc). All devices are synchronised with contacts, calendars, mail, files and presentations. This is not an Apple fanboy story, it's about synergy and productivity. PC and Android producers are looking to create the same smooth, integrated model. Apple has just beaten them to the line... yet things change very quickly in technology. What is coming next?

Posted via email from Beyond Digital Media

Finally I have logged into Flipboard with my Facebook and Twitter accounts and created personal digital magazines based on the comments, images and links of my friends and colleagues. This is wonderful stuff. (See my previous post and video here.)

Even more significantly, my Twitter Lists, which have been around for a while allowing me to organise the people I follow into categories, have suddenly taken on a new, powerful role acting as content feeds for Flipboard magazines. Now I can create my own personal iPad magazines, and act as Editor-in-Chief by choosing the magazine topic and the contributors.

I have just tested this out and called my first digital title, 'Social Web', the name of one of my Twitter Lists. You can look at my growing list of contributors here, and even follow this list. (Thanks everyone and sorry to those I've forgotten!!) Sometimes people will contribute great stories on social media, web 2.0, mobile devices and the digital space. Other times they'll chat about the impacts of the internet on politics or the clean feed. Or even about lunch. And if they talk about lunch too much I can drop them from the Flipboard feed.

Twitter is where millions of professionals exchange ideas and links to high-quality content because they want to stay at the cutting edge of their industry. And most industries in the first-world are moving at fast, if not exponential, rates driven by significant advances in technology.

Currently there are 2.5 million Twitter accounts in Australia and just over 9 million Australians using Facebook. Flipboard allows you to take this crowd-sourced content, aggregate it in a neat - can I say beautiful? - way and consume it much more easily than Twitter or Facebook has allowed up to now. Because, let's face it, that's what it's about: the form factor.

Within 10 years we have come a long way, or perhaps completed a full digital circle. Content exploded onto the web in the 1990s and early 2000s, searchable on Google and other search engines. Social media and web 2.0 technologies created the opportunity for crowd-sourcing and aggregation of content so we became exposed to 'trusted' streams of information flowing to us through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and more. Now the iPad has allowed Flipboard (and I'm sure other solutions will follow) to turn those streams of content into a magazine-like format, a form we have always loved to kick back and consume (now digital and highly interactive), and made us our own editors.

Posted via email from Beyond Digital Media

Chris Bishops

From Alan Sarkissian, CEO, Publishers Australia

I wish to advise that the Board of Publishers Australia at the recent Board meeting held May 21, 2010 voted unanimously to officially endorse the Audit Bureaux of Australia's (ABA) Digital Audit services.

The move endorses the ABA’s methodology for digital audits and confirms to the membership of Publishers Australia that the executive team and the board believe that it is the only trusted, centralised, independent and standardised reporting in Australia. The ABA’s digital audit service was an initiative involving the collaboration and support of peak industry bodies, the MFA, AANA and IAB.

This is a real leadership position that underlines how critical we see the issue of digital auditing as an increasingly important analytical channel. We are right behind this, as it is the end-result of the ABA’s commitment towards creating greater standardisation and transparency of online audience metrics across the digital publishing landscape.

I am also delighted to confirm a special incentive for all Publishers Australia members who sign up for the ABA Web Audit between now and June 30, 2010. Publishers Australia members will receive their first Email Newsletter Audit at no charge, which is valued at $330.

The free newsletter component is also available to association members who are also existing ABC or CAB members and want to add the power of a trusted independent web audit to their overall publishing proposition. Publishers Australia members who are not currently an ABC or CAB member can become one for only $495.00, which is the 2010-2011 membership fee.

To Download the full press release, click here.

Yours faithfully,
Alan Sarkissian
CEO, Publishers Australia

To enquire about becoming a Publishers Australia member, call 02 9955 1510



We flew back into Sydney late on Friday evening 14 May, after our ‘four cities in four days tour’ of Australia. We had spent nearly a week discussing the impact of both social media and the iPad with almost 200 magazine publishers in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Iggy Pintado from Beyond Digital Media led each lunch session with a 50 minute presentation on ‘social media for publishers’, which was followed by presentations from Creative Folks, Realview and Quark, demonstrating ways to deliver magazine products to the game-changing, tablet-industry-creating, iPad.

Thanks to Iggy Pintado and Chris Bishops from Beyond Digital Media, Alan Sarkissian from Publishers Australia, Andrew Lomas from Creative Folks, Richard Lindley from Realview and Alex Nemeth from Quark for forming an excellent touring-party.

Feedback from the Publishers Australia Lunch attendees has been hugely positive and we look forward to further events of this kind.

Posted via email from Beyond Digital Media

Iggy Pintado and Chris Bishops are heading around Australia next week talking to publishers about Social Media and its integration with Mobile, particularly through the iPad.

Iggy and Chris will be presenting alongside three companies with technologies that assist publishers push content onto the new device. Quark, Realview and Creative Folks (licensees of Woodwing) will have five iPads for lunch attendees to play with and will be giving live demonstrations of how these technologies work.

The tour will move from Brisbane (11 May), Melbourne (12 May), Adelaide (13 May) and Perth (14 May) presenting at lunch events hosted by Publishers Australia.

To book at any of these lunches click here (takes you to the Publishers Australia site) and then follow the 'StickyTicket' link to your relevent state.

Chris Bishops, Head of Digital Strategy at Beyond Digital Media and Chair of the Digital Leadership Group for Publishers Australia said, "I was a firm believer that the iPad would be a game changer for the publishing industry. Having used one for much of today [Tuesday 4 May] I'm now convinced it will impact many more markets."