If Apple is able to replicate the success it has had with the iPhone, then its iPad tablet computer will have a huge impact on mobile advertising, branded applications and content distribution.

Today Apple is expected to announce its plans to release a tablet computer, which is rumored to feature a 10-inch touch screen and run applications designed for the iPhone. The tablet?s larger screen and iTunes payments platform could be a boon for brand advertisers, software developers, large content providers and media companies looking for alternative revenue streams.

?In terms of branded applications, we?ve been contacted by all of the big brands for which we?ve developed iPhone apps seeing what they can develop for the tablet,? said Scott Michaels, vice president at Atimi Software, Vancouver, BC. ?The desire and the budgets are there, so brands will enter the tablet space.

?The tablet with the best user experience for apps will win, and right now Apple?s App Store has the clear lead,? he said. ?The Tablet will have the same kinds of apps as the iPhone, perhaps with more functionality, but it will be the same business model.?

The increase from the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen to a 10-inch screen will provide a richer canvas for application developers and marketers.

?Mobile marketing has always sort of struggled with getting the message across on a rather small-sized screen,? said Kjell Fischer, cofounder of apprupt, Hamburg, Germany. ?At the same time, mobile marketing often shows high engagement rates, as the mobile phone is a very personal device for people.

?Further, the ability to target an advertisement based on the consumer?s current location adds a whole new dimension to relevance of marketing?something that only mobile is able to do,? he said. ?The Tablet has the potential of combining the best of both worlds: relevancy and display of rich media on a larger screen.?

The same holds true for branded applications that want to engage the end user.

Tablet for healthy mobile
The Tablet offers a lot of possibilities to engage consumers while providing a utility wherever people are and however they might use the device.

Right now, it seems that Apple is trying to position it as a media device that will enable consumers to do just about anything, from gaming and reading ebooks to watching video content.

This means that the Apple Tablet could be the bridge between the mobile phone and the laptop. It could also be the new laptop or netbook. It might even be the new television or the new ebook reader.

?My guess is that Apple is positioning it as the bridge between phone, laptop, TV, book and gaming console,? Mr. Fischer said. ?Of course, that means that it will have to be portable.

?The thought of carrying around a rather large and expensive device still seems to be a bit scary to people, but the potential for the Tablet to become yet another game-changer is huge,? he said.

Some industry insiders are speculating that could be more than just a product filling the gap in Apple?s portfolio between the iPhone and the Macbook Pro.

?Apple?s Tablet is certainly the first device to bridge the functionality of a smartphone and a laptop, providing multimedia, rich graphics, connectivity, location-awareness and the simplicity of the iTunes store for ordering and subscribing,? said Scott Dunlap, cofounder/CEO of NearbyNow, Mountain View, CA. ?And it?s a replacement for either, so I can see the desire to call it a bridge product.

?It?s certainly a big step from the eReaders of today, which are largely specialty devices for reading,? he said. ?But I think what Apple is best at is not creating bridge products, but instead creating something so new and cool that it defies categorization.

?I suspect the main usage of an Apple Tablet will surprise everyone because it?s a usage case that laptops and smartphones aren?t capable of serving.?

Tablet's target demographic
Apple fanatics will surely be drawn to the Tablet, and many will likely be unable to resist the allure of a new product such as this. But will it cannibalize iPhone sales?

Also, how might the Tablet demographic be different from the smartphone demographic?

?To start, it will be similar, appealing to geeky men,? Mr. Dunlap said. ?But Apple has the ability to change the adoption profile better than anyone else, which could quickly change the demographics.

?The Apple zealots will be first, and that isn?t to be underestimated,? he said. ?Much of the power of Apple is the fact that 100,000 ?cool people? are going to try it out first.

?This ?fashion-forward? audience is a good target audience for magazines, advertisers and more that could help get new forms of mobile advertising developed quickly.?

As more of this content comes on board, it will appeal more to women, much like how applications helped to shape the adoption of the iPod touch.

?Within two years, it will be nearly 50/50 men and women,? Mr. Dunlap said.

If Apple is successful in getting textbooks, video and learning apps on board, the company could skew the usage to the younger college set. 

?We saw the same thing when the iPhone and iPod touch came to market and changed the desire for mobile marketing,? Mr. Dunlap said. ?Previous smartphone usage was skewed heavily to men, and because of this, the mobile advertising market was lagging.

?Once women started buying iPhones and iPod touches, the interest in mobile marketing grew,? he said. ?Now women are more than 70 percent of the NearbyNow audience.?

Some feel that Apple?s Tablet will probably appeal to a broader target group, as it will combine different types of media consumption.

For example, there are rumors that Apple is in talks with major book publishers.

This would really broaden the target group for the Tablet, and could take market share away from Amazon?s Kindle and other eReaders.

In addition, Apple is attempting to reach deals with major TV networks to distribute their content via a shared-revenue subscription model.

?As a matter of fact, there are so many things one could imagine that could be done with the Tablet, that it appears difficult to narrow down the eventual user demographics,? Mr. Fischer said. ?The Tablet might become a family device, shared between young and old within a family for playing games together, as a means of education or watching TV shows.

?But of course, it will be the early adopters, the tech-savvy and higher-income consumers, that Apple will have to win over first,? he said.

The availability of digital applications on the tablet could provide another multimillion-dollar device platform on which Apple can sell applications?and on which brands can launch free applications to boost their multichannel marketing efforts.

Yankee Group projects that U.S. mobile smartphone applications will grow from $573 million in 2010 to a $4.2 billion-plus market by 2013.

?If Steve Jobs? crash cart can stop the decline of traditional publishing with a sexy, easy-to-use tablet device, and in the process take 30 percent of revenues?Apple's usual cut for iTunes store distribution?it could have yet another multi-billion-dollar win on its hands,? said Carl Howe, director at Yankee Group, Boston, in a blog post.

Potential competitors
Where Apple goes, competitors often follow, and the Tablet will be no exception.

If the device is a success, a lot of other players will enter this market, from handset manufacturers to laptop manufacturers.

It is important to notice, though, that Apple is partly entering a market with one big player already involved.

?The Amazon Kindle has been a great success so far and the Tablet has the potential to steal away sustainable market share from Amazon?s ebook reader,? Mr. Fischer said. ?It will thus be interesting to see how Amazon reacts to Apple?s move into their market.

?Also, let?s not forget that Microsoft has been unsuccessful in the past to establish its own Tablet in the market,? he said. ?This clearly substantiates the fact that the success of such a device will be about software, not hardware.?

It is clear that Microsoft will give the tablet another go, especially since the Windows 7 operating system has touch-screen capability.

?A lot of players from the traditional PC market and the mobile phone market will launch tablet computers,? said Carolina Milanesi, London-based director of mobile devices, technology and service provider research at Gartner. ?Nokia has done a netbook, so why not do a tablet?

?A tablet based on Android is a possibility as well, as the platform already has touch screen functionality,? she said. ?For some of the companies that came out with Android netbooks, a tablet could be a possibility as well.?

In the wake of the Nexus One announcement, Google could be interested in releasing a tablet of its own.

?Let?s see what Apple does [today], then you?ll see people try to respond to it and explore the opportunity of this form factor, but it could be risky proposition,? Ms. Milanesi said. ?It?s not just another piece of hardware.

?They have to create a compelling reason for consumers to spend money on it,? she said. ?From an app perspective, if Apple is going to go down the road of coming up with an OS that can leverage the App Store from the beginning, that?s already a compelling offering you can give people.

?Then it?s not just a PC with touch-screen functionality?consumers can leverage all the apps already in the App Store today.?

Marketers' take
The Mobile Marketing Association agrees that the Tablet could be a game-changer for mobile marketing.

"The Apple Tablet is going to have a significant and positive impact on the practice of mobile marketing and the value that can be generated with it," said Michael Becker, vice president of mobile strategy at San Jose, CA-based iLoop Mobile and MMA global vice-chairman. "For marketers, the impact aligns along the factors of potential reach and rich-media Internet-enabled services delivery." 

For instance, there are more than 10 billion mobile-enabled devices in the market today, including phones.

"As these devices, like the Apple Tablet, are adopted by consumers, marketers will have extended reach for their programs ? programs that can be full of engaging, rich, interactive media," Mr. Becker said.

For consumers, the value aligns along the lines of increased capability and access.

"They will have more and more opportunity to easily access Internet services and related mobile applications and solutions enabled by these new devices to accomplish what they want, when they want it and how they want it," Mr. Becker said.

"These services will provide marketers and consumers alike with the ability to have a global presence while engaging in locally relevant services and community," he said.

The Tablet could be massive because it brings together portability, interactivity and a big screen.

"This could give brands the ability to reach who they want, where they want, when they want with rich and compelling media and branded apps," said Michael Chang, CEO of Greystripe, San Francisco, CA. "The bigger the canvas the better for users viewing many types of media - think movies - and for creative agencies who often feel restricted by the confines of a banner.

"Imagine watching a traditional television show in which the commercial shown was targeted toward people like you for a shop down the street," he said. "A single touch of the screen could pull up store hours, coupons and the phone number.

"It is an exciting time for mobile advertising."