"Flashy iPad Apps" Are NOT the Point - The Potential for new Dimensions IS

In his June 1st column on GigaOm.com, Mathew Ingram asks "Are Flashy iPad Apps What Publishers Really Need?" and proceeds to discuss Wired Magazine's iPad edition runaway sales hit and Adobe's announcement of the Apple-friendly tool set used to create the app, available soon to all. In general I think the post makes some great points about how digital editions of the magazines we know and love are going to have to incorporate more of the interactivity and interconnected depth of information afforded by the web in order to signal a true change. The headline and the lead in really make it sound like these "Flashy iPad Apps" are the be-all-end-all and it is either this newfangled touch enabled version of the flat magazine pages or the web - period. SO not the case - this touch medium is just getting started. There is such a fantastic opportunity for designers and publishers to imagine truly rich multimedia experiences in the hands of their readers like never before. There is a massive opportunity for new forms of communication and expression and I cannot wait to see what envelopes the innovators push... and I hope to jump in and produce and express with the best of them.