iPad: game changer? - UPDATED

UPDATE: since my post, Slate have posted this: Taking the iPad Pill'

I'm no gadget expert - there are plenty of others in the blogosphere who can tell you all about what's hot and what's not in the world of technology. I am however interested in the way content is delivered. A couple of news stories on Deadline Hollwyood Daily caught my eye, as they point to the newly launched iPad as a game-changer in terms of being a new platform for cinema.

Warners, Netflix, ABC/Disney and Marvel Comics have all created iPad - specific applications which will push forward other content providers to do the same very quickly. iTunes obviously already has a movie content site, but the small iPhone screens are really not cutting it. The bigger iPad screens should incentivise consumers to download more films more frequently, potentially expanding the market for video on demand significantly.

As I have mentioned before, the world needs all the platforms it can get right now - and as long as the variety of titles available is as wide as something like Lovefilm or Netflix, it can only help the business. The faster producers and distributors embrace these changes and get in early (before Murdoch et al raise huge walls around the platforms) the better for diversity and arthouse films.