My librarian husband, who regards e-book readers like Kindle and Nook with disdain (“and what will happen to libraries when there are no more books?” he asks rhetorically) said out of the blue the other day: “I want an iPad.” 

This is a guy who barely uses his cellphone and has a really old iPod Nano. He’s a late adopter, this one.

I’m not a techie person but I appreciate innovation and convenience. I have an iTouch (lurve it!) and the usuals. No e-book yet, but we were thinking about getting a Kindle this year. But I hadn’t heard about Apple’s new Must Have toy for 2010. So I hopped online to find out what made my luddite husband salivate over one of these things.

David Pogue from the New York Times describes the iPad thusly:

The iPad is, as predicted, essentially a giant iPod Touch: aluminum-backed, half-inch thin, with a 10-inch screen surrounded by a shiny black border. At the bottom, there’s the standard iPod/iPhone connector and a single Home button. It will be available in models ranging from $499 (16 gigs of memory, Wi-Fi) to $830 (64 gigs of memory, Wi-Fi and 3G cellular).

So basically, it’s a hybrid between a Netbook and an iTouch. The e-book application is handsome, the screen is in color and it looks sleek and cool. What Apple has done is create an e-book reader for the hipster crowd. And it will move people on the fence about e-book readers to finally taking the plunge.

As a writer and novelist, I’m pleased that there are things out there that make buying books easier. I’m also pleased to read stuff like this:

In negotiations with Apple, publishers agreed to a business model that gives them more power over the price that customers pay for e-books. Publishers had all but lost that power on Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader.

With Apple, under a formula that tethers the maximum e-book price to the print price on the same book, publishers will be able to charge $12.99 to $14.99 for most general fiction and nonfiction titles — higher than the common $9.99 price that Amazon had effectively set for new releases and best sellers. Apple will keep 30 percent of each sale, and publishers will take 70 percent.

Apple isn’t trying to squeeze the publisher for every dime? Publishers have power in the distribution game for once? Could the iPad staunch the bleeding in the publishing industry?

The iPad isn’t coming out until April. We won’t be waiting in line for one either. It ain’t cheap. But my book-loving husband is intrigued. He’s coming off the e-book fence. I wonder how many others are like him.

What do you think about the new iPad? Will this get more people on board the e-book train or do you think it’s hype? Are you waiting in line at the Apple Store the day it launches? Or are you sticking with old fashion paper books for now? Let us know in the comments.

Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She has written two novels under the pseudonym Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter--both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President's teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins.
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