What Does Apple’s New iPad Mean for the Postal Service?
Filed under Strategy & Public Policy
Tags: catalogs, media, news, technology
Courtesy of Apple
Last August, Pushing the Envelope ran a topic on e-readers — devices designed for portable book reading. Two weeks ago, Apple unveiled the iPad. The iPad offers multiple functionality including the ability to read books, surf the Internet, and use computer applications. Unlike most e-readers, the iPad does not have virtual ink technology, which is intended to mimic paper and make reading more pleasant, but it has one key difference from other widely-used e readers — a color display.
Loading ...Newspapers and magazines have particularly expressed interest in a portable device that would electronically display their content in color. They hope to sell electronic versions of their traditional product — stories and advertisements that are easy to read anywhere. Is the iPad the answer? Will magazines and newspapers migrate to color devices like the iPad?
What about catalogs? If people can easily read, view, and order items from a computer tablet on their couch, will retailers start sending digital catalogs? Or is the immediacy of receiving a physical paper catalog irreplaceable?
What do you think?
This topic is hosted by the OIG’s Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC).
17 Responses to “What Does Apple’s New iPad Mean for the Postal Service?”
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February 8th, 2010 at 11:35 am
the ipad is going to revolutionize a lot of mediums. hopefully the Postal Service will embrace the new technology.
February 8th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Media companies are heading in the direction of making content available in whatever format the consumer prefers. So, if you subscribe to a magazine or newspaper, you will receive the hard copy (unless you opt out) and you will also be able to receive that same content on the device or devices of your choice. So you may want your information delivered on an iPad, Notebook Computer, cell phone, Blackberry, or via Internet to your desktop. The choice will be yours. The challenge for the media companies will be to get consumers to pay for digital content. Without payment, media companies will not be sustainable.
February 8th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
iPAD and an array of other similar products will definitely change the business of periodicals and catalogs for postal service. As the peak of mail volume in 2008, it was the catalogs and periodicals that saved the Postal Service from going red.
USPS invested millions of dollars in flat mail sorting machines such as the AFSM and FSS to completely automate the processing of this mail stream. However, with Job’s brilliance and the younger generation’s affinity for everything electronic, periodical news or otherwise paper magazines will be history in about five years.
I don’t think the immediacy of ‘pushing’(not receiving) a paper catalog is replaceable since most catalogs are not sought by the consumers. However, with the revolution iPAD like devices, online advertising will grow even further to the point where ads that lead to colorful, touchable, and ‘magnifiable’ catalogs will be all over relevant websites.
The business, technology, and consumer habits are definitely changing, and I don’t know what, if anything, USPS can do to adapt and take advantage of the situation except……enhancing our parcel delivery business to accommodate the ever growing number of eRetailers looking for a cheaper AND reliable shipping service. We reach every address six days a week in all 50 states. It’s up to USPS leaders to sit and watch the train going by or to start planning NOW.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:58 am
Nothing like getting a hands on catalog to peruse before purchasing on-line. In my opinion, hard copy catalogs drive internet sales. I have yet to see an online store that was as easy to read as a paper catalog.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Change occurs slow. With the advent of new handheld communications devices, changes will occur but not all will be successful. It also does not necessarily mean that a more rapid demise of the printed communications industry will occur if the industry is vigilant and dynamic. New is not always better and old is not always obsolete. 100 years plus and cars still run on fossil fuel and people still talk on telephones. What is most ignored is the portion of the population that doesn’t partake in a new revolution. They should be the focus of growth, not those that switch to every lastest fad.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
You are neglecting the issue of the differences of generations in the adaption of new technologies.
Paper is familiar to older generations, electronic presentation is familiar to the younger generations.
Although my old neighbor taught me when I was a boy on how to make a quill feather pen and use india ink and blotters, most correspondence today is by email.
The postal service’s relevance to this technology may be in the adaption of its universal delivery platform access to every address as a neutral courier bound by federal protection, authority and obligation.
February 11th, 2010 at 8:36 am
alert(Hi)
February 12th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
People in general like to read a magazine, newspaper or book in their hand. This may change with the generation who has not yet grown up. I do not like trying to shop with catalogs on line. Ordering on line is convenient, which is a bonus for the companies that utilize the USPS for shipping. I think that the ipad will have great success in some areas.
February 14th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Well………… How about 200,000,000 Stamps.
Or $88,000,000.00
Give or take several million…
Several of which are free-free-free.
Los Angeles Times Business
February 12, 2010 | 5:36 pm
Upon spelunking around for Valentine’s apps in Apple’s now-massive App Store, I was amazed to find that there are at least dozens of Valentine’s-related applications. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, given that close to 150,000 apps are available. That means apps are just getting more and more specific and the average usefulness level is very likely dropping.
The idea of 150,000 apps is hard to conceive of for us children of the software-in-box era, when the shelves of CompUSA or Software Etc. probably held no more than a couple hundred titles at once. And even most of those were barely worth a second look.
That said, not everything in this world needs to be useful — and for the price of four rides on the mechanical horse outside the supermarket, you can amuse yourself for minutes with a variety of odd and silly applications centered on just about any theme or topic. Why not?
I only ask that you wipe your phone clean after testing out these apps. It’s a family holiday.
Now, then …
February 26th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
I really think that our relationship with printed media is fundamentally changing (and very quickly).
About 6 months ago I started using an iphone. I never read the new york times, but now I read it all the time. As the print magazines that I do read become more available and user friendly on-line, we will be drawn to them because we can interact with them (unlike traditional printed media). ipads will make this kind of interaction even more ubiquitous.
Somehow, someway, the USPS should figure out how to embrace this, and leverage this reality. Turn what could be a challenge into a opportunity for growth.
April 5th, 2010 at 8:21 am
The iPad is an ideal means for the mobile person to receive their mail. The USPS should offer a service whereby they would collect PO Box Mail, scan it and deliver image mail to the iPad – a “killer app”!!
April 6th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Please explain the market. And, I might add several
impediments, in the form of identified verbs….
offer- in a service scenario, usually a proposal with associated terms related to a target subject. With
intents to generate an action. In the USPS world,
the customer has come to expect this at no cost.
collect- This is a periodic action, representing a
required number of additional actions to successfully execute. Assuming you are referring to the plethora of Ole’ Blue boxes, conveniently “re-populated” located throughout the USPS global geographic footprint. But, they may already be highspeed rail track by now, so what to do….
scan- I believe in the postal world, this operation
might be technically impossible. However, there do
exist some complex tsa technologies capable of successfully negotiating the process. But, I’m afraid they my exceed the aptitude skills of much of the current compliment. (based on my most recent audit experience at a P&DC)
deliver- The last action required which consumes the
largest financial and least sustainable impact on
the offer. There are a number of compelling reasons why this action word is systematically dismantling
the USPS’s existing model. Transportation is the
life blood of the USPS. Without which, the core components of the revenue yields under the USPS cannot
be sustained. I’m not certain, but I do believe the USPS is unwilling to surrender this segment of their
business to the telecommunications and broadband providers. Unless of course new carbon cap and trade force them to “green up”!!! Then, they may have no choice but to merge.
April 9th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
The survey misses the target. Stores (not just catalogs) on netbooks, laptops, desktops, cellphones and tablets offer immediacy, enrichment and minimal delivery cost that appeals to both consumers and sellers.
Who among us hasn’t purchased something from Amazon, Tigerdirect, Walmart, Macys, Newegg, etc?
Meanwhile, the USPS stands athwart a world where every merchant fights to reduce prices and improve customer experience, roaring, “You will pay my price and you will do it my way, or else.”
Something’s gotta give… and it already has.
June 29th, 2010 at 3:42 am
If the postal service wants to remain relevant they need to offer new digital services that the masses will accept. Post card apps, apps to send pictures to family. They need to innovate. Just my option.
August 8th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Hey,
the bad is with the ipad, you can subscribe magazines for a good value. You must buy a single magazin for too much money.
It will spread, if apple allows subscribing magazines.
August 8th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
iPad wireless needs the fact that US cable is moving from standard coax cable connectors to fiber and service should improve.
August 10th, 2010 at 2:56 am
I belong to those people who “didn’t have luck with iPad”. Because of overheating and constant system errors I had to replace it with another one.
As for iPad features and capabilities – both thumbs up!