Immersion Theory

This article of an interview with Frank Rose by CNET, describes how any new media device takes a very long time for people to fully understand and actually use in a main stream way.

'One of the key things I came to realize is that it takes people 20 to 30 years to figure out what to do with any new communications technology. The motion picture camera was invented around 1890, and it was 1910 before they even came up with the idea of movie stars, and another 17 years after that before they had sound.'

He goes on to say that the same thing happened with the television, which of course is one of the most important media d

evices in almost every single human beings lives in the westernhemisphere; soon to include the East.

iPad

I believe we can connect this theory with the idea that the introduction of touch screen media devices like the iPad by Apple will wipe out books and newspapers. To date (April 2011), Apple has sold 15 million iPads (Source - nbbusinessjournal) over the period of one year. The reality so far is, (for the sake of argument, one person has an iPad each out of the total sold) that 15 million people accounts for little over 20% of the UK on its own, let alone the 6.5 billion others on the planet. That said, hedge-fund manager Jeff Matthews predicted that in a few years, Apple will soon be selling up to 50 million iPads a year. This then, bases solely on just the estimates based around Apples products and sales predictions alone, looks like Frank Rose's theory could be right. A crude sum based on the claim by Matthews says that in 30 years, (ignoring the fact new technology will exist by then) there could well be in the region of 1.5 billion iPad successors in the world. Perhaps then, in 30 years time we will see a reduction or even a complete stop in the use of magazines, books and newspapers.

Book sales fell in the years 2007 to 2008 by 1.5%, according to NYTimes, which doesn't show a drastic decrease, as this could simply show the natural trend in the growing populations of people who can't read, or that people are simply uninterested in books because of other distractions. On the other hand, GizmoCrave report that there has been a 208% in February 2011, which looks set to rise. But for now, people are quite content with physical media devices such as a newspaper. The way they feel and handle as well as a long standing presence in our lives are still inherent in us and many people will find it hard to change the way they view the media. As well as this, there are also various health hazards holding a heavier gadget. The UK government is also under fire to change pupils reading habits at school, and should encourage students to read more books.

I think my magazine would be suited to entering the iPad/ Android app market. With many mainstream magazines such as GQ designing iPad based magazine editions, a music magazine could work very well. As long as the iPad is connected via WiFi or 3G, the magazine could stream music straight from the page for the readers to listen to. This sort of technology could be brilliant in the future for marketing new bands.