Apple have focused on shared use of tablet, reckons WSJ

The Wall Street Journal says Apple spent a lot of time considering how a tablet device might be used communally in homes and classrooms: being handed around, or used by a group as a portable TV/video device.

One person familiar with the matter said Apple has put significant resources into designing and programming the device so that it is intuitive to share. This person said Apple has experimented with the ability to leave virtual sticky notes on the device and for the gadget to automatically recognize individuals via a built-in camera. It's unclear whether these features will be included at launch.

Notable too are the third parties the WSJ identifies as having been in discussion with Apple about content for the device (and their industries): the New York Times (newspapers), Condé Nast (mags), HarperCollins (books), CBS & Walt Disney (TV), and Electronic Arts (games).

The WSJ posits that Apple's ambitions echo what they did so successfully with iPod/iTunes - i.e. establishing a new market for what are basically existing goods. "Mr Jobs has a longstanding strategy of devising new ways to access and pay for quality content, instead of reinventing the content." Key to this is finding a space in punters' lives for the device to inhabit.

The article also alludes to Apple's plans to turn iTunes into a website:

A central part of the new strategy is to populate as many Web sites as possible with 'buy' buttons, integrating iTunes transactions into activities like listening to Internet radio and surfing review Web sites.