Yeah, but Can the iPad Make Me Money?

ADOTAS – Driven by the hype in the technical press, I visited Apple’s website and checked out the iPad video. Like all of Apple’s geek candy, the iPad looks great–sleek and slick. It demos as completely intuitive, with barely a learning curve needed.
The $499 price point seems a tad steep at first, but it’s cheap when compared to a MacBook. And oh, what the iPad can do…. It’s an e-book reader! It’s a music player! It’s a portable theater with a big enough screen that we old guys can see it! And if you want to talk internet, you can take it with you!
I want one.
But back to business, which in my case is crafting video-based direct response advertising for TV and the web. Where the mere rumor of a new Apple toy triggers giddy adoration, my industry’s direct response TV products are often targets of satire. But in the markets they compete, they’re game-changers too. People spend billions because these products perform functions that customers value.
To succeed, DRTV firms and Apple must both create products that fulfill unmet needs. And Apple — which in its early days was itself an infomercial client–pitches its products virtues as aggressively.
Can Advertising Piggyback on Apple’s Success?
For marketers, the iPad is a promising ad channel. We’ve clamored for a decade for a mobile advertising platform that delivers messages and response with trackable reliability. There’s considerable enthusiasm that the iPad may qualify.
Mobile ad network Transpera offers a representative take: “the sleek, portable device offers consumers a viewing experience that rivals a laptop with the intimacy and relevancy of the mobile phone…. the iPad can deliver Transpera’s ‘Peek’ pre-roll and post-roll video units, as well as Clickable interactive video ad units. ”