WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

Hearst magazines launchs an “Apps Think Tank”.

While the free iPhone app of Esquire got more than 100,000 free downloads and produced more than 1.000 subscriptions to the magazine, the$1.99  iPad app of Popular Mechanics got only 40,000 downloads.

So Hearst is trying to develop an in-house”App Lab” to improve all these numbers.

Hearst Magazines has created nine iPhone applications; all of its titles are available on the iPad via the Zinio application; and by the end of the year, the company expects to have at least 35 iPhone, iPad and Android applications for its brands.

As Kenneth A. Bronfin, president of Hearst Interactive Media says:

“There is no such thing as the ‘status quo’ in interactive play–or business. Our business reflects our ever-evolving communities of users–both on the Internet and throughout Hearst Corporation. We are innovators who change the landscape and challenge the status quo.”

All this shows that readers, advertisers, software companies, designers and media publishers are desperate looking for new and moire exciting ideas.

As one readers comments in the iTunes iPad store about Esquire magazine:

“Been a subscriber to the mag for years. Not going to pay for the same content I already pay to have delivered to my door.”

That’s the challenge.

And this will be the main objective of our next Harvard Tablet Summit (Cambridge, December 2-3, 2010)

Are you ready?

Watch (and enjoy) this new Apple advertising campaign (here, here, here, here and here) and you will see how the new iPhone video calling is going to be a hit.

And a big TV ad winner.

For sure.

Via Buzzhunt.

Next: the INNOVATION’s Rubber iPad.

As you know, Apple reports its quarterly earnings  today.

What we can expect?

Big numbers again, for sure.

Associated Prss goes wild and said a few minutes ago: Apple is expected to say Tuesday that its net income in the most recent quarter jumped 85 percent, boosted by brisk iPhone sales.

Apple said it expects earnings in the range of $2.06-$2.18 per share for the quarter and revenue of $11.0 billion-$11.4 billion.

Apple’s share price has been setting all-time highs since March 5, and last week it came near to $250.

That’s a 220% increase in 15 months.

With almost one million iPads sold in the first 17 day in the USA (remember that it took them 74 days to sell a million first-generation iPhones) the new Apple tablet could become a killing product for the next quarter.

Plus the new iPhone OS that can send the shares of Apple to the$300 mark.

But as always Apple will downplay the estimates… in order to beat them, again and again.

The San Francisco Chronicle explains all this very well.

UPDATE from Fortune:

The consensus on Wall Street, according to the latest poll by Thomson Financial, is that Apple will report earnings of $2.45 a share on revenue of $12.04 billion — which would make Q2 2010 easily Apple’s best second quarter ever.

Good reality check: Just the facts baby!

Sales of Google’s Nexus One phone in the US have paled in comparison to the iPhone.

After 74 days, the Nexus One has sold an estimated 135,000 units, according to mobile analytics firm Flurry. By that point in 2007, Apple announced it had sold a million iPhones.

A total flop.

Michael Wolf writes too much and thinks too little.

This cheap shot against Apple is a good example.

Apple is a private company.

In a free market.

So, they have freedom to chose the way to do business.

And, we, the customers, freedom to buy or not to buy the Apple products.

It’s clear that Steve Jobs is not Rupert Murdoch.

It’s clear that Apple is not News International.

It’s clear that Apple wants to have a consistent image in all its products.

Mr. Murdoch can publish The Sun and The Times, The New York Post and The New York Post at the same time in the same markets.

It’s his choice.

Yo can like it, or not, but he makes the decisions, and you and I the decisions to buy or not to buy his newspapers.

The  editors of Times of London, have decided not have a page 3 girl.

And Publico in Spain not to make money with prostitution classifieds.

They have freedom.

And we must respect their decisions.

So, why Apple cannot decide to keep the iPhone applications clean of viruses, garbage, poor software and content that could upset parents or young customers?

They don’t want to become another Myspace full of crazy content.

So, what, Michael?

If you want page 3 girls buy The Sun, but not object to The Times.

If you want more girls, and some porno, you don’t need Apple.

It’s free in many websites.

In many magazines.

In many newspapers.

And, I am sure, in many smart phones.

But not in the Apple iPhone.

Steve Jobs rules, takes the shots and leads.

Is his company, not yours.

And you and I have many options.

Like Apple.

If you are leader, you don’t follow, you lead.

A new great infographic from Column Five Media.

Brilliant!

Compare these smartphones and you will see why our newspapers and magazines must pay attention to the iPhone Apps Store.

The trend is clear and dramatic.

Yes, everything will be available in a mobile format.

So your digital media content will have to be available in a mobile format.

If not, you will not reach the new generations of readers, audiences and communities.

That’s the basic lesson from iPhone and iPad.

When the CEO of Google says that very soon they will make more money with Mobile than with Internet, imagine a Mobile Tablet and you will understand why the Apple coming tablet could be a dramatic innovation.

Business are moving to Mobile.

Realtor, like Zillow and Sawbuck, are taking their listings to the iPhone.

If you use Realtor, you will be able to access to about 4 million listings across the United States that they say are updated every 15 minutes.

Realtor say the new app will allow home shoppers to search for open houses within a 20-mile radius, sorted by location or date. Users can take camera-phone photos of listings as they tour them, assign them star ratings, jot notes on the phone, and quickly post listings to their Twitter or Facebook pages–or e-mail them to friends, family and their buyer’s agent.

Many newspapers still think that the only strategy to save their classifieds is to move them to Internet.

Well, too late.

Move tham to Mobile.

That’s the future.

Tags: Apple Tablet, Classifieds, Facebook, Google, Real State. Moble, Sawbuck, The Realtor, Twitter, Zillow, iPhone, internet