The re-emergence of the tablet has been a major storyline in 2010. Thanks primarily to Apple, tablets have gone from also-ran to overnight success, creating a market that could see sales of as many as 41 million devices in the US alone by 2012. The category-redefining iPad will drive the majority of sales, in the US and worldwide, through 2012, according to eMarketer estimates.

Adoption of this new generation of tablets has been far brisker than other related device categories. Tablets will blow by e-readers in total sales in 2010, and by 2015, Forrester projects that tablets will account for a greater share of PC sales than netbooks or desktops. To say that tablets are changing the face of both computing and mobility is putting it mildly. Big tablet sales projections mean significant opportunities for marketers.

The big question is: will advertisers adapt to this whole new way to be mobile? Results from an August 2010 Nielsen survey suggest that they should. It found that iPad owners are considerably more receptive and, in some instances, significantly more excited about ads than other mobile device owners.

A case in point: 39% of iPad owners consider ads on their devices as “new and interesting,” according to Nielsen, compared to 19% of all connected device owners. And 35% say they actually enjoy viewing ads (especially multimedia ads), double the rate of all connected device owners. The iPad remains the standard-bearer for now, but it also functions as a benchmark for other tablets.

Anytime the word “excited” appears in relation to consumer attitudes about advertising, marketers should take note. Interviews with publishing industry executives suggest that awareness of the tablet advertising opportunity is growing.

Philip Whitney, VP of online marketing and product development for American Express Publishing, told eMarketer:

“Based on the price of the iPad itself and the fact that most magazine apps have a fee associated with them, you’re getting a select group of people who are really engaged with the advertising. In a world in which there are a lot of undifferentiated audiences, advertisers are very happy to get their message in front of a group of people who very ready, willing and able to engage with their ad.”

Publishers are understandably excited about the tablet opportunity, particularly tablet owners’ seeming predisposition to purchasing titles optimized for their devices.

But from the marketer perspective, the opportunity goes deeper than traditional publishers trying to make the transition to digital. Some of the most interesting innovations have come from companies such as streaming-music service Pandora, which launched interactive rich media advertising for the iPad in June 2010, and The Weather Channel, which has worked with high-profile sponsors such as Toyota on similarly interactive ad inventory.

Both beat Apple to the punch in providing rich media interactive ads, although with Apple’s iOS 4.2 now available for the iPad, iAds should soon start appearing on the iPad as well.

The bottom line: The combined effect of bigger screens and richer, more engaging ads, including video, is slowly changing consumer attitudes toward advertising on mobile devices. It’s up to marketers to continue fulfilling their end of the value exchange, but as more tablets flood the market, this evolving dynamic bears watching.

For more information on tablets, look for a new report coming out this month, written by my colleague, Paul Verna, “Tablets: New Screens for Marketers.”

It’s a familiar question. Whether the iPad or any other tablet will really be the “savior” of the publishing industry, as some have said, is unclear. What is clear, however, is that consumers aren’t likely to be friendly to publishers who don’t provide content optimized for their preferred digital media devices–be it tablet, e-reader, mobile phone, or even desktop computer.

Some publishers already appear to be taking the tablet route. Wired Magazine is currently developing a gorgeous app for the iPad, and other publishers appear to be moving in similar directions. We recently put senior analyst Paul Verna in the hot seat to ask some questions about his new report, “Paid E-Publishing Content: Books, Newspapers and Magazines” to really find out what’s moving and shaking in the print-gone-digital space. (Read more…)

Wired Magazine just released a video promoting their upcoming app for the iPad, and it looks gorgeous. We’ve all heard about how large-format e-readers such as the iPad and Amazon Kindle DX can deliver a truly immersive experience, but this video gets that point across visually. I was especially struck by interactive features embedded in the ads – something we haven’t heard much about because we’ve been understandably focused on editorial content. Delivering this type of rich media advertising experience will be crucial for publishers threatened by a sluggish economy, competition from other forms of entertainment, changes in consumer behavior, and the inexorable march of technology. (Read more…)