Apple is aiming to ship its oft-rumoured tablet-style touch-screen computer this fall, we reported over the weekend, combining a big screen with the functionality of an iPod Touch.
The company has been striving to perfect the device for years, while attempt by PC makers to peddle Microsoft-powered tablets have fizzled.
Apple won’t compete with the booming low-end netbooks, which can cost as little as $400. Instead, it wants to charge a premium price, at least $600 and as much as $1,000.
Hardware elegance might not be enough to generate demand, even with Apple’s built-in fan base. So Apple has been pursuing exclusive content deals across a range of industries.
Book publishers think they will get to be partners, finally, as the Apple tablet offers electronic book features that put it up against Amazon’s Kindle.
But the most closely timed arrangement thus far is one that the four major record labels hope will revive moribund sales of album-length song collections. According to people briefed on the effort, dubbed “Project Cocktail,” customers who buy the downloadable equivalent of a CD also will get innovative and interactive versions of lyric sheets, photos and the printed inserts that come with physical purchases.
Whether that will be enough to reverse a seemingly inexorable decline in bundled music sales is unclear, but it shows that Apple continues to believe it must combine content with the means of distribution in order to expand.
