The iPhone and the e-book are changing the landscape for electronic products — and leading to new innovations at a rapid pace. In fact, reading the tea leaves leads me to believe that we are at the beginning of a new class of products. I don’t know what to call this class yet, but for lack of anything more motivational, let’s call them multi-media replication products. (I invite any of you to send in your ideas for a name for such products if this seems like a real trend to you).

Chris Chinnock
Senior Analyst and Editor
for Insight Media

In a private conversation we had with a stealth-mode company this morning, they described an e-reader product that has a large screen size (in the 11" range) with lots of pixels. But their focus is really on delivering e-newspapers and e-magazines — not in the web version of these products, but in an electronic version that has the same look and feel as the print edition. This is different. This is emulating or replicating the hard copy product in electronic format complete with the same ads and layout. But this concept can be taken one step further — you can make the ads or photos become videos; you can annotate and interact (potentially) with other readers. It is replication but with a multi-media twist.

Consider any newspaper that has an on-line and hardcopy edition. In my experience, I scan and thumb through the hard copy version, stopping on interesting photos or headlines that catch my attention. I pretty much look at every page — at least briefly. When I read the on-line version, I look at the front page, click on a story or two, then move to the one or two sections I am most interested in. There is no scanning or virtual thumbing through the content. It is a different experience. And the ads are all done differently too.

So if one stealth company had a good idea about multi-media replication, you might not think too much of it. Well it just so happens that USA Today announced that on August 3rd, it will launch the e-Edition of its newspaper, which will be "an exact replica version of USA TODAY featuring additional interactive and exclusive content." The exclusive content will be a weekend edition available only to hardcopy and e-Edition subscribers (not on news stands). For more, check out: www.electronicedition.usatoday.com.

The newspaper did not say what platforms it will deliver to or the format (other than it is powered by software developed by Olive Software). Presumably, they want to enable any device — laptop, desktop, cellphone, tablet PC or e-book reader to access this content. But with all those platforms, the viewing experience will vary widely (which is something our stealthy company will be addressing).

So if this is a real trend, there should another example, right? For that, let’s turn to the rumors of the impending Apple Tablet product, which could come this fall. Rumor has it that this will feature a 10" screen with touch capability and a single board computer. It could be an answer to a netbook, an e-paper reader or a super-size iPhone.

What is interesting is what people think Apple will do with this product. One line of speculation says they will focus on music and reading. For music, the device with launch with CD-length content deals that will include images and video that will capitalize on the touch screen capability. It is the replicated music album gone multi-media, which developers hope will increase sales of albums compared to singles.

And, suppose Apple embraces the delivery of book, textbook, newspaper or magazine content too. The iTunes store could now offer a single web-based retail point for music, video and printed content. That could change the dynamics of the competition and the distribution model — which is a theme for another article.

A lot of people still prefer hardcopy content for a variety of reasons. But if we can begin to really replicate that experience — and potentially make it better, that could be good news for a lot of trees. How soon will we see the end of paper-based content? Not for quite some time, is my guess, but the vast majority could convert faster than you think. If one of the best selling newspapers is exploring this route, can the others survive long with a print-based business model?