Within the decade Apple has managed to craft beautiful design into every day objects such as the laptop computer, the mobile phone and the personal music player.

Excitement and hype came with its announcement but the real question is what impact will the iPad really have?

Plenty, it changes the way we interact with the everyday such as email, web, books and how we look at the next generation of interactive magazines.

If you are in the publishing industry and ignored the web then you have time to catch up and get content ready for the iPad. This is beyond the comparison of a “pregnant iPhone”.

Since the launch on April 3, Apple is rumoured to have sold more than 300,000 iPads. As with any new device the early adopters are the ones who spot the problems first. The main issue is a small number of devices were having trouble with the in-built Wifi not being able to connect to networks very well.

“Apple needs to sort out these issues very, very quickly. They must remember that many of the first buyers will be purchasing almost as an act of faith.

“They will be, in the main, Apple fans already, and they trust that iPad will be the magical device promised by Steve Jobs. Apple cannot afford to let those people down,’’ said brand guru Simon Middleton.

As with the iPhone and iPod, the iPad has the ability to have applications made for it. Apple has added some new features for better reading of books, an obvious sign that Steve Jobs is looking to take on Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) at his own game. For us in Northern Ireland we have to wait towards the end of the month until we can get our hands on one. April 24 is rumoured to be the big day. In the meantime app developers are burning the midnight oil dreaming up new games, utilities and content for the AppStore. There’s already a thriving iPhone development community in the province who are all excited about developing applications for the new device.

The iPad also strengthens the argument for making sure that your website is going to be compliant with the HTML5 standards. There’s still the lack of Flash player on the device, Steve Jobs is convinced he can live without Adobe's main rich media player.

This won't stop most people, keeping in mind that the likes of YouTube is already using HTML5 video steaming on beta test. This also sees the coming of age of interactive content for newspapers and magazines.

The publishing industry has taken a battering over the last few years so it is hoped the iPad can turn these fortunes around.

Jase Bell is founder of Datasentiment, a customer loyalty startup in Northern Ireland