Five Ways Apple's Tablet May Change the World

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Nielsen noted this trend of "concurrent media usage" this spring, in a $3.5 million study that recorded what hundreds of people actually do when commercials air. When TV spots came on, people picked up laptops, magazines, or cell phones and did something other than watch the screen. Expect that trend to accelerate when you have an Apple tablet in your lap.

• Augmented-reality views of the world will increase. If you missed this trend, it's simple: Augmented reality puts computer graphics on top of live video feeds, similar to the yellow line you see on the field in NFL games.IPhone users now can download applications that overlay a video feed from their iPhone camera—providing floating arrows on the screen showing you, say, the distance to the nearest New York City subway station.

With a larger tablet, such video overlays on reality will become even more compelling. Expect app makers to leap ahead by giving construction workers 3D instructions at a job site, providing consumers with product reviews that float over items on sale at the mall, or serving daters a visual display of the job history, FICO score, and criminal record of that cute guy or gal they meet at a bar.

• Two-way video on tablets will push communication costs even lower. Yes, technically you can do portable video today, if you're willing to walk around town with a laptop flipped open near a Wi-Fi zone. But by and large, our infrastructure still can't accommodate simple two-way video on the go. Add a tablet with built-in Webcam, and suddenly video calls are as easy as holding up a mirror. You better believe AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ) are sweating about the advent of Skype video in subway trains or on Hawaiian beaches. (Perhaps Apple will throw its partner AT&T a bone by holding off on tablet Webcams for a few generations. Or it will throw AT&T under the bus by cutting a tablet deal with Verizon Wireless, a scenario at least under consideration earlier this year.

• Telecommuting may finally take off. If you hate your commute and care remotely about the environment, then why do you still sit in traffic for two hours each day? Because society has decreed face time is better than phone time. But when Apple tablets make portable video truly accessible, plane tickets and poor coffee in cars may become things of the past.

We could be wrong. Perhaps it's too much to hope for: a world where Apple provides low-cost, two-way video anywhere that saves print journalism while reducing phone costs, augments reality while cutting your commute, heck, even brings humanity closer together while stopping traffic jams and pollution.

But heck, Apple. Even if you can't solve the world's problems, we'll buy one anyway.

Ben Kunz is director of strategic planning at Mediassociates, a media planning and Internet strategy firm. He is author of the advertising strategy blog ThoughtGadgets.com.

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