The BBC will launch an iPlayer app for Apple’s iPad this Thursday, the corporation’s interactive operations manager Geoff Marshall has announced on Twitter.
Users can browse the catch-up TV and radio service listings using a 3G connection but will need WiFi to watch or listen to programmes.
It will initially be limited to the UK, although the BBC is working on a subscription-based international version for the iPad that is expected to launch this summer.
From last week, but well worth a read – Forbes’ columnist Trevor Butterworth on the opportunities for news groups and journalism provided by “the fifth wave of computing”: “the massive ramping up of the mobile internet and the evolution of mobile phones into ‘life devices’ through 3G, cloud computing, GPS and second generation barcoding”.
Newspapers and magazines with luxury goods supplements and sections could be the testing ground for a new kind of advertising built on mobile interactivity (…) All of this technology exists – mobile devices with sufficient camera resolution to scan barcodes have been shipping for the past year -and these capabilities appear to augur well for service and local journalism, upon which hard news will need to collaborate if not piggyback.
But the real challenge in taking advantage of this new wave is whether news organisations can work together and stop thinking of themselves as “insular, completely self-sufficient” operations with full control over their distribution, says Butterworth. It is this “bold thinking” that will master the mobile world, he says.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has released a detailed report about how he sees Apple quadrupling its 2008 sales and hitting the 45m figure he had previously predicted.
These are the key elements:
– Introducing a 3G iPhone within the next 3 to 6 months
– Offering a family of 2 to 3 iPhones – including lower-priced models selling for $200 to $300 – by Jan 2009 at the latest
– Entering new countries, effectively doubling the addressable market every year for the next two years
– Adding new features, such as games and remote purchases starting in June.