The tablet craze, HP-tablet, I mean…

Gizmodo just published the summary of last night’s keynote by Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and man it looks gorgeous (at least in the marketing video).

Now the tablet craze starts to make more sense. If the print media industry want an electronic distribution media (and they should by now), then they must create an open standard that allows all players in the market to create devices for that content to be distributed.

The print media want content to be king and distribution channels to be commoditized (just like TV was). That’s the only way to guarantee that they have an advantage when it comes to defining prices and being in charge of the business model.

Believing that Apple will come and save them by creating a closed system and a single distribution channel (iTunes) which does not even work outside the major markets (US, UK) is just crazy and in many aspects it would be suicide for the Print Media. They already realize that the competition for them is the Internet, and there’s no limits to how that gets distributed. If they limit their content they will loose audience.

I for one would like to have my news delivered to me electronically, but on a laptop not a tablet…

In the meanwhile, enjoy the video!