The iPad won't be the 'silver bullet' traditional news media was hoping for, according to a study by Ovum. Despite forecasting a 'gold-rush effect' that will see the total value of downloaded applications on the iPad hitting USD 68.8 million this year and USD 511.8 million in 2011, Ovum believes Apple's tablet device alone will fail to secure the future of news and magazine publishing. By way of contrast, it is forecast that the global mobile applications market will be worth USD 5.7 billion by 2014, with total paid downloads of 3.3 billion applications. The study indicates that volumes of the iPad will take time to build. In addition, the tablet media market will soon become as congested as the smartphone application store market. Report co-author Adrian Drury said that traditional publishing's challenge to find a new and sustainable business model is immediate. Previous attempts at defining this fourth screen product category have so far failed, Drury said, adding that Apple needs the content ecosystem to drive mass-market appeal. The total shipments of Apple's iPad is forecast to reach 13.2 million by end of 2011. By comparison, Apple shipped 25 million iPhones in 2009 alone.
