Continuing with a very source agnostic digital book strategy, Barnes & Noble has announced it will soon be offering an e-reader app for the Apple iPad.

The app will be designed specifically for the iPad’s tablet form factor, and will join B&N’s existing e-reader app family already available for Mac, PC, iPhone , iPod touch, and BlackBerry.

In other words, although the company is selling its own Nook e-reader device, it doesn’t want to lock potential book customers into a single platform or device. The company saysthat the goal is “providing consumers any book, anytime, anywhere.”

Like the other existing apps, the iPad app will give users access to the Barnes & Noble e-bookstore with more than one million e-books, magazines and newspapers, plus access of course to its existing digital library. The company expects to officially launch the app around the same time the iPad will be available, which should be April 3 if the existing rumor has any truth to it.

As publishers continue to flock to the iPad, what’s your current take on the e-reader versus tablet war that’s brewing? Can the two form factors coexist, or will tablets like the iPad steal the thunder from e-readers?

John Gruber of Daring Fireball has an interesting story about the absence of certain iPhone apps – Stocks, Calculator, Clock, Weather, Voice Memos – on the iPad.

It seems that these apps, when scaled up to iPad’s bigger screen, simply didn’t look good enough to Steve Jobs, so he decided to scrap them. Writes Gruber:

“Ends up that just blowing up iPhone apps to fill the iPad screen looks and feels weird, even if you use higher-resolution graphics so that nothing looks pixelated. So they were scrapped by you-know-who. Perhaps they’ll appear on the iPad in some re-imagined form this summer with OS 4.0, but when the iPad ships next month, there won’t be versions of these apps.”

If true, it would be a pity, because these are quite basic, no brainer apps that everyone uses, especially Clock, Calculator, and the Weather. On the other hand, if these simple apps don’t look good enough scaled up, how will all those thousands of third party apps look? As far as apps go, the iPad experience (at least in the beginning) might turn out to be something that Apple otherwise struggles to avoid: good enough, but far from perfect.

Apple announced on Friday that the Wi-Fi versions of its long-awaited iPad will arrive April 3 in stores in the United States. The models that can tap into AT&T’s 3G wireless data network will be available in late April.

Customers can pre-order the iPad on Apple’s Web site beginning next Friday.

Apple’s tablet computer is expected to ship with 12 new applications designed specifically for the device, and it will run almost all of the more than 150,000 applications available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Apple has been aiming the iPad squarely at e-book readers like Amazon.com’s Kindle. And in its news release Friday, Apple said that an updated version of its iBooks app that will include Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download on April 3 in the United States, with additional countries to be added later.

The company has been aggressively recruiting personnel for the new iBookstore, listing a variety of iBook-related job openings on its corporate job board — including “Manager, iBooks Asia Pacific & Canada,” “Independent Publisher Acct. Mgr., iBookstore” and a “Merchandising Manager, iBookstore.”

Apple said that pricing for the device will be the same as it initially announced in January:

iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the United States for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the United States through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

Apple said the iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi and 3G models in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, with more countries added later this year.

While we all know that some tidbits of information in the iPhone/iPad SDK don’t necessarily mean we’ll see these features soon (or ever) on the devices, they can be a good pointer as to what to expect from their future iterations.

The folks at 9to5Mac and MacRumors have done some digging, and found references to front facing camera, zoom, flash and video conferencing in the latest Beta 3 iPad SDK.

There’s some evidence to support the theory that these were intended for the iPad (the size of the accept/decline buttons, for example), but as we all know, the iPad has no front facing camera, or any kind of camera at all. But a second generation iPad…well, that’s another story.

In a self-promotional moment reminiscent of the Apple chief Steven P. Jobs, Robert Eckert, the chief executive of Mattel, is celebrating one of his company’s own products as “the hottest toy for the 2010 holiday season” — even though it’s not even on sale yet.

I give you the Fisher-Price iXL Learning System, which has all too inevitably been hailed as the iPad for the fresh-out-of-diapers set.

The iXL is a tiny computer that opens like a book. It has fat, colorful icons on the right side and buttons and a speaker on the other side. As you might expect, there are apps for the new product: Story Book, Game Player, Note Book, Art Studio, Music Player and Photo Album software.

And, my goodness, this gadget even has a touch screen.

The product should go on sale in July and start at $79.99. It’s Mac and PC compatible with an SD card slot and a U.S.B. port.

“We have invested more research and development dollars into iXL than any other product in our 2010 Fisher-Price product line and it definitely shows,” Mr. Eckert said in a statement.

Somebody buy that man a black turtleneck.

The iXL seems to have more visual pizazz than the Family Story Play system from Nokia and Sesame Workshop (the people behind “Sesame Street”). Oddly, Nokia opted for a wood case for its device, which has a pair of screens and a book holder.

Nokia has been pitching the Family Story Play, which remains a concept device, as a way for children and, say, grandparents in a far-off place to read stories together via video conferencing.

Further evidence has emerged that Apple’s iPad and iPhone may support video chat in future versions.

Icons in the iPhone 3.2 Software Development Kit are labeled “Accept Video” and “Decline or End Video”, reports 9to5Mac.

Meanwhile, code in the iPad’s telephony apps also includes mentions of video chat. 9to5Mac concedes that Apple may have re-used code from its Mac software in the 3.2 SDK, but adds there would be no reason to create video chat icons for the iPad unless this was a feature.

The rumor supports previous reports that future iPhones/iPads will have a front-facing camera, and the discovery of code for “toggling a video call between full screen and a smaller screen area” in the SDK.

Video Chat Icons

Sales are robust for e-readers and there is no shortage of tablets yet to launch, including the new Apple iPad. But will strong sales translate into a boost for the media industry?

If media organizations do it right, the potential could be there for e-readers and tablets to become a viable revenue source. However, it may take a dramatic shift in the way publishers view digital content and their online business models.

Here’s a look at what media companies will likely need to do to make that happen.

The Potential of E-readers and Tablets

“Right now, the e-reader and tablet are the most promising new potential source of revenue for newspapers,” said Roger Fidler, program director for Digital Publishing at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri.

While a Freedom Foundation Fellow at Columbia University from 1991 to 1992, Fidler created a conceptual electronic newspaper prototype with about 12 hyperlinked pages. In 1994, he adapted that prototype for the Tablet Newspaper video he and others produced at the Knight-Ridder Information Design Lab.

Fidler also coordinates the Digital Publishing Alliance, which includes news companies such as The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post, and is focused on issues such as standards for content and ads on e-readers and tablets.

He predicted e-readers would become commonplace in 2010. Not only have they arrived, but sales of e-readers are picking up. Sales of e-readers are projected to be 5 million units this year, up from 2.2 million in 2009, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

“Within 10 years, I believe the majority of subscribers to newspapers and magazines will be reading digital editions delivered to mobile reading devices,” Fidler said.

He said that as of February 10th, there were 99 newspapers from around the world available on the Kindle. The newspaper content is subscription-based without advertising. He said e-readers take a content feed from newspapers that’s highly templated and automated.

Publishers Need a Bigger Cut and More Control

Fidler said newspapers get 30% revenue from having their content on the Kindle.

“That is likely to change before long,” he said. “Amazon’s ability to set prices for e-reader editions and control the publisher’s share of revenue is coming to an end.”

He added that publishers have some leverage because e-reader vendors must have content in order to succeed.

“As newspapers have more ability to do rich presentations on magazine-size devices, you’ll see more,” he said. “Content will evolve. There’s a lot of opportunity.”

However, the Kindle won’t get people reading newspapers unless it offers features similar to that of smartphones, such as color display, touchscreens, and photos, according to a news release about a study by the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Survey respondents are residents of Athens, Georgia, a city that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution dropped from its circulation, the release said.

UGA advertising professor Dean Krugman said in a statement that “as a stand-alone attribute, the newspaper feature is likely not strong enough to sell the e-reader.” He conducted the study for six months last year with advertising professor Tom Reichert and Barry Hollander, an associate journalism professor.

Fidler said there’s evidence to support that Amazon will come out with a full-color device with a touchscreen before the end of 2010. Now that more vendors are introducing e-readers and thin, lightweight tablets such as the Apple iPad, publishers are pushing for delivery and presentation standards, and for agent relationships with e-book stores that let them set prices, incorporate advertising, and capture data about their subscribers, according to Fidler.

“The main competitors in this market will continue to be Amazon and Apple,” he said.

New Content Presentations for a New Medium

Alan Mutter, an independent media analyst who authors the Reflections of a Newsosaur blog, said that media companies cannot simply re-purpose their content for e-readers and tablets. Content needs to be richer, offer more user control and interaction, and has to let the user manipulate it in a way that it becomes highly individualized.

Sport Illustrated’s iPad demo prototype really leverages the capability of the interaction, according to Mutter.

“I think news content sites demand new approaches to content,” he said. “I’m far from convinced that publishers are looking to make changes as radical as they should be looking to make.”

He said that if they adapt, he has reasons to be encouraged. But the heavy, upfront task of launching new content displays for these devices might be too much at this point. Fidler said publishers are reluctant to make major investments in new platforms until they see some proof that they can generate significant revenue and ultimately be profitable.

What’s a measure of success? He said that when the number of e-reader subscribers hits 100,000, media companies will consider them successful because that’s what they believe it will take to get advertisers on board.

Exploring Multiple Revenue Streams

Fidler said paid subscriptions and advertising will allow e-readers and tablets to generate revenue for media companies. He said the hope is that an e-reader edition or an iPad app will be able to generate better revenue than the web has in the past. He stressed that e-reader and tablet editions must include advertising to be profitable.

Mutter said multiple revenue streams such as ads, subscriptions, and potentially syndication from other sites should be pursued. “Advertising is part of the picture, but so is charging for the service,” he said.

Mutter said, for example, The New York Times puts content on the iPhone but gives it away for free, while CNN created an iPhone app and charged $3.

However, Gawker’s Valleywag reported that The New York Times circulation department wants to charge $20 to $30 a month for its forthcoming iPad app, and the newspaper’s digital department wants to charge $10 per month.

“The idea of having content optimized for the platform — I think people will pay for that,” Mutter said.

Now that the dust has settled and we know what the Apple iPad is, many people have begun trying to answer the question, “How can I justify spending the money to get one of these things?” There is certainly no denying that the iPad is a very cool looking device, but as a small business owner, do you really need one? And what about netbooks? Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims that the new iPad fills a niche for which netbooks were failing to deliver, but is that really true for business users?

Here, then, are reasons why you should go out and buy an iPad as soon as they’re available, and reasons why you shouldn’t.

Why You Need One

There are many reasons why small business owners could justify purchasing an Apple iPad. Though clearly aimed at casual users and touted primarily for couch web surfing and multimedia consumption, the iPad also has plenty of potential business uses. By creating a special iPad optimized edition of iWork, Apple’s productivity suite, Apple also clearly sees the iPad’s business potential. Their ultra-competitive announced price of just $9.99 for the app indicates that Apple plans to aggressively court business users, even if that is not necessarily their core customer.

Essentially, the iPad is a big iPod touch that in theory provides a better typing experience (by virtue of its larger onscreen keyboard). Because the iPad will run any of the 140,000 iPhone/iPod apps right out of the box, any business use you already have for your iPod touch or iPhone (except making phone calls) will be available to you on the iPad — but bigger. With that in mind, the iPad could certainly become an asset to sales people who make presentations on the road (what’s more impressive — clicking through PowerPoint slides or manipulating product demos and data visualizations with your fingers?) or anyone who needs to easily monitor core business functions (server health, web site traffic stats, sales indicators, financial numbers, etc.) from the road using a relatively cheap and compact device.

Why You Don’t

What the iPad isn’t, however, is a replacement for your desktop or laptop computer. There are many features missing from the iPad, but two in particular could be deal breakers for serious small business users.

First, the iPad lacks a standard USB port. There will almost certainly be aftermarket accessories available to add USB support to the tablet, but the bottom line is that using the USB devices you already own, such as memory sticks and external hard drives, will not be easy or even possible with the iPad out of the box.

Second, and more egregious, the iPad, like the iPhone and iPod touch, currently lacks the ability to multitask. For Apple’s apparent target consumer — users who will use the iPad for casual web surfing, to watch movies, and to play games — not being able to run more than one program at the same time isn’t likely a big deal. But for business users, that’s a major setback. If you’re putting together a presentation or writing up a sales report, you need the ability to be able to refer to a web page or data locked in some other application while you work. For that reason alone, the iPad in its current form is not an ideal business machine.

What About Netbooks?

For about half the price of an iPad you could buy a very capable netbook (some come even cheaper when subsidized by a 3G data plan subscription). According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, “netbooks aren’t better at anything.” But in many ways, a $299 netbook outshines the $499 iPad, especially for business users. If what you’re after is a machine that offers extreme portability and business critical features for a low price, a netbook might be a better option.

Netbooks have a number of advantages over the iPad. They multitask, they often have cameras (for video conferencing), they can generally run Windows (meaning they run Microsoft Office and Outlook), they support an open software ecosystem (meaning more choice and the ability to easily custom develop and deploy software for your organization), and they have standard ports and inputs. While they can’t match the iPad for cool factor, as far as business functionality, netbooks pack a lot of bang for the buck.

So which should you buy? That will come down to what type of device you need and its intended use. The iPad, however, is not a must-have purchase for all small business owners — at least, not in its first generation.

When it came to naming its new tablet computer, the iPad, Apple was hardly coining an original term. As The Times outlined in a story last week, a number of other electronics companies already sell products that use the iPad name.

Now a tiny electronics company in southern China is claiming that Apple didn’t steal just the name of its product, but also its design. Wu Xiaolong, executive director of Shenzhen Great Loong Industrial, says that last July, his company released a tablet computer called the P88.

“Anyone who sees the P88 will realize the iPad looks exactly the same,” he said. “We talked to a lawyer and we’re preparing material for a lawsuit.”

The products bear a superficial resemblance, but fundamentally seem rather different. The P88, which can be seen on the Web site of the tiny electronics maker, runs Microsoft Windows instead of Apple’s iPhone operating system, has an Intel chip, uses a 10-inch-diagonal screen (the Apple iPad is 9.7 inches) and is priced at $570, a bit more than the basic iPad model. It is about a pound heavier than Apple’s device and boasts a battery life of 1.5 hours, compared to the iPad’s claimed 10-hour life.

In challenging Apple, Great Loong is trying to take a page from the playbook of America’s technology giants, which for years have complained about how small electronics firms in southern China clone the look — and sometimes other components and features — of branded goods, including the iPhone, Nokia cellphones and Dell computers. Some of these cheap knockoffs — called shanzhai goods — are popular in rural areas of China because they look like the real thing but cost significantly less.

Mr. Wu said Great Loong developed its iPad totally on its own. “The P88’s appearance, system and mode are all accomplished by our own engineers,” he said.

Great Loong says it has already signed deals to ship the P88 to France, Germany, Japan and the United States.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment on Great Loong’s claims.

The iPad is clearly one of those universal technologies that will be as useful in the home as in the office. Much like the iPhone, people will want it for work simply because it will be useful for getting work completed. Like any Apple product, it’s easy to use. It’s lightweight. And it’s mobile. Plus, this baby is as sleek as it gets.

We expect to see a similar trajectory for the iPad in the enterprise as the iPhone has had in recent months.

Apple reported its earnings earlier this week. The company reported that iPhone usage doubled since last summer after the introduction of the 3GS. The iPad with 3GS service will be available in 90 days. Our bet is that by next Fall we will be reporting similar news about the iPad as we have about the iPhone.

Similar to the iPhone, the iPad serves as a communication device. It’s clearly positioned as a consumer device for reading newspapers, watching movies and all sorts of various entertainments. But it is also well suited for the enterprise.

According to Forrester Research, the iPad will be particularly well suited to the high-end mobile office worker. These people will pay for the tablet themselves. They will primarily use it for messaging and collaboration and to access email, calendars and productivity applications.

Forrester analyst Ted Schadler says the iPad has a number of implications for the market .Google will have to respond now that Apple has extended its platform for applications. And the competition will only intensify for collaboration and productivity applications. According to Schrader:

“The importance of great document tools just increased. Apple’s support of iWorks on the iPad gives execs what they need to present on the road and leave the laptop at home. Microsoft should build best-in-class iPad software in the Office formats. (Or watch execs move key material to the iWorks formats.) Adobe should take responsibility for a great PDF reader. And these readers must also be great presentation tools.”

We know what the critics will say. Corporate governance will preclude the use of the iPad in the enterprise. It will have to meet corporate IT requirements for laptops. This may be true, but like the iPhone, people will buy and use it, regardless of the corporate policy.

Still, there are a number of requirements that would make it ideal for the enterprise, including the ability to wipe data remotely and hardware encryption.

But in the end, the iPad is a sleek device that people will want for work as much as for at home.