CardStar Launches iPad App, Coupons

Mobile loyalty platform CardStar launched an iPad app. It expands the functionality of the company's earlier iPhone app (and other smartphones) by adding coupons and deals that are tied to users' registered loyalty cards. In other words you see the deals for the companies whose cards/programs you've registered on the app. 

Here are the features of the new iPad app:

• Scissor-Free Coupon Clipping & Hassle-Free Redemption – To select a coupon, drag and drop it onto the corresponding merchant’s digital loyalty card inside of CardStar for iPad. To redeem saved coupons, simply use the loyalty card at checkout
• Retailer & Manufacturer Coupons – CardStar currently partners with numerous retailers and coupon providers, including Zavers, to provide a wide range of saving opportunities.
• Personalization – CardStar helps avoid information overload by only sending coupons for retailers saved in a user’s CardStar card catalog.
• Filtering – CardStar offers filters so users can easily see coupons they’ve previously selected or search for those from specific brands.
• Social Sharing – Coupons can be e-mailed to friends and family through the app and users can also automatically check in through Foursquare at checkout.

One of the nice things about the new app is that offers saved on the iPad are in the "cloud." So they're automatically logged on the iPhone and other smartphone apps.

People obviously aren't going to bring the iPad to the point of sale. But they can browse deals on the couch and associate them with their registered loyalty cards. By using the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry apps at the POS, users automatically get the benefit of the coupons previously "clipped" on the iPad accordingly. 

In addition, one spouse can clip coupons on the iPad and the other one can use the CardStar smartphone app and get the benefit of those coupons at the POS without any knowledge of the spouse's prior iPad clipping activity. 

Adding coupons (tied to loyalty cards) is a logical move for CardStar, whose iPad app becomes something analogous to the Sunday circulars. And the automatic linkage of the deals to the loyalty card/account offers a "closed loop" to merchants. CardStar told me that they're were going to greatly expand the variety and range of coupons offered. However I believe offers presented will remain largely "personalized" via the filter of existing loyalty memberships.

CardStar is compiling some fantastic data on user behavior that it can use in a variety of ways to be determined. The company says it's had two million downloads since launch in 2009 and currently has 700,000 active mobile users. 

See our earlier posts on CardStar:

• CardStar Lets You Check-in at Checkout
• CardStar Gains Small Investment from Verizon
• Cardstar: Mobile Loyalty and Much More

Kindle-iPad: The Tablet Market's One-Two Punch

By lowering the price and coming out with an improved device, Kindle has established itself as the "iPod of eReaders." Today Amazon said that its new Kindle was selling like mad:

More new generation Kindles were ordered in the first four weeks of availability than in the same timeframe following any other Kindle launch, making the new Kindles the fastest-selling ever. In addition, in the four weeks since the introduction of the new Kindle and Kindle 3G, customers ordered more Kindles on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk combined than any other product, continuing Kindle’s over two-year run as the bestselling product across all the products sold on Amazon.com.

The iPad rather than killing Kindle may have helped it buy forcing it to improve and lower its price, and by expanding awareness and the market in general.

Carefully positioned as a "single-purpose" device vs the iPad's multi-function capability, Kindle has carved out a solid position in the market. It threatens to extinguish all eReader competition and has (perhaps in tandem with the iPad) already caused some competitors to cancel products. 

For its part the iPad is showing surprising traction in the enterprise market:

When Apple Inc.'s first iPhone came out in 2007, many companies told their employees that the device wasn't appropriate for the workplace. The iPad is a different story.

The company's tablet-style device seems to be sidestepping the resistance that the iPhone and other consumer-oriented devices have faced in the corporate environment. Indeed, many businesses have raced to snap up iPads.

In addition a recent global survey of 1,100 “mobile workers” by iPass found that just over one quarter of them intended to buy an iPad: 

Verizon Pad Coming Soon, How Cheap Will It Be?

There's a report out this morning that Verizon will be launching an iPad competitor in the form of an HTC built Android Tablet on November 26 in the US market. It will likely be the first genuine iPad competitor to hit.

As with Android (vs. iPhone) in general it will likely not be as polished as the iPad -- though here Flash availability may be a differentiator -- but it will likely be pretty strong or "good enough" for many people -- especially if it's cheap. 

The key issue will be cost. Here's what we said not long ago about the question of iPad challengers and pricing:

There is unlikely to be any single Android tablet that "wins" in terms of overall user experience and quality vs. the iPad -- though flash may play a larger differentiating role on tablets than it has one smartphones.

But price will be a significant factor in buying behavior, as it always is.

The market has been established by the iPad, now it's "safe" for competitors to ape the iPad but at lower price points. And if those devices are "good enough" the lower prices will be persuasive to many consumers who don't want to pay more than $500 for a device that isn't a full computer replacement. 

Verizon might totally subsidize it in exchange for a two-year data agreement or there might be a couple of price points tied to memory and/or the existence of a data contract. But you can bet that the price will seek to undercut the iPad by a significant margin. 

Related: Verizon is going to make FIOS TV available via the iPad . . . and presumably this Android tablet. 

The iPad 'Killer' Is Price

A PC World article argued that the "iPad Killers" are already dead before they're launched because Apple is locking up the supply of components needed to make competing tablets. There's also the separate question of whether competing tablets will measure up in terms of quality. However dozens of lower-cost Android tablets are anticipated over the next year.

Specifically a new Augen Android tablet is reportedly coming to Kmart stores in the US. Positioned as an eBook reader it's got full Web browsing capability and WiFi as well as access to all the Android apps. The price is $150. 

Here's a video demonstration:

There is unlikely to be any single Android tablet that "wins" in terms of overall user experience and quality vs. the iPad -- though flash may play a larger differentiating role on tablets than it has one smartphones. 

But price will be a significant factor in buying behavior, as it always is.

The market has been established by the iPad, now it's "safe" for competitors to ape the iPad but at lower price points. And if those devices are "good enough" the lower prices will be persuasive to many consumers who don't want to pay more than $500 for a device that isn't a full computer replacement. 

Price reductions have been the driving factor in Kindle's recent sales success, having dipped to $189 (it will likely fall further). I imagine we'll see a decent sub-$100 Android tablet emerge at some point as well. Price competition will likely mean millions of tablets in US homes over the next several years, with corresponding implications for advertising and e-commerce. 

Life After Microsoft: Tellme and Bing Mobile Speech Enable Windows Mobile 7

Although Microsoft chose not to provide us with a demo unit this time, we've come to understand that the company has done an excellent job of integrating Tellme's speech recognition features into the Windows Mobile 7 workflows. Greg Sterling's post from the Bing event noted the integration of Tellme in passing and provided this link to a video demonstration. The Speech@Microsoft group has adopted the "press and hold the home key" convention to invoke speech recognition which, in turn, can be used for voice dialing, to search for local businesses or to launch one of the apps on the device.

The latter two services reflect an equally deep integration of Bing and Bing Maps as the default search engine and geographic information services, respectively. As Greg notes, contrary to some of the early, very critical, reviews of the Windows Mobile 7 OS, invoking and providing commands to apps doesn't have to involve never-ending scrolling - just a few well-chosen utterances. A Microsoft spokesperson noted that alternative search service providers would be able to submit "apps or hubs for the Windows Phone 7", but it is unclear (and doubtful) that they would enjoy the same level of integration with Tellme's voice command structure. 

Life After Tellme: McCue Launches Flipboard

Tellme's co-founder and entrepreneur can add "serial" to his title now that his latest company, Flipboard, successfully launched its eponymous product and initial set of services. The Flipboard app for iPad is a dynamic mashup of newsfeeds and social media features. Users are greeted with a front page along with the invitation to "flip" through to a "Contents" page that displays multiple frames of "flippable" content: including rapid access to feeds from Facebook and Twitter as well as multiple categories of curated content with names like FlipStyle, FlipPhotos, FlipBusiness (you get the idea).

In addition to the sui generis Flip(fill-in-the-blank) there are some preselected "winners" like GigaOm, The Onion, All Things D, The Economist and a few others that streamline access to content from popular online news sources and social media. Once selected, the source can be navigated by using intuitive finger gestures (flipping). There are also icons on each story that users can touch to "like" that story or to "reply" to the original post with a comment. It's that simple... Almost.

We characterized the launch as a "success" only if you measure success by "overcapacity" (a variant of Apple/AT&T's formula for demand creation). Featured prominently on the "Contents" page of Flipboard are the obligatory links to Facebook and Twitter. However, flipping to those links initiates a "pop-up" message thanking the customer for downloading the (free) app and admitting that "we are currently limiting the rate at which we are accepting new Facebook and Twitter connections" The good news is that they believe it will take only "several hours" to "deploy new server infrastructure". This makes it a shorter wait than the line at the Apple store on the first day of iPhone4 sales.

As for the business side of Flipboard. The company has reportedly closed a $10+ million Series A round from Kleiner Perkins. As for monetization strategies, the company is admittedly "early stage" but, with leading branded content providers showing such deep interest on the new user interface and navigation technique, advertisers will not be far behind; nor will ideas for subscription services.

Tablets: How Will the Market Shake Out?

In the slate/tablet and reader world there are essentially three major competitors: iPad, Kindle and Android. However, in the "waiting in the wings" category we have HP, which has promised to release one or more tablets based on WebOS and perhaps Windows.

RIM is also about to bring out a tablet and Microsoft has vowed not to lose out in burgeoning market either.

A year from now we'll know more, after all these various devices show up and there are a dozen or so modestly priced Android tablets in the market. I predict that "pure" eReaders will fade or entirely disappear unless they're priced very aggressively or seriously upgraded.

Kindle's price is now down to $189 and Kindle DX recently upgraded and the price dropped to $379. Still at $379, DX has very little chance of gaining traction in the market unless it morphs into a more full-functioning tablet. 

But even the original, six inch Kindle won't be able to survive unless it too dramatically upgrades or re-prices itself. That's because there will be a slew of $199 or just over $200 Android tablets. The $199 Cruz Reader is just one among many coming. 

After the dust settles, the iPad is likely to occupy the "premium" segment as Apple does with laptops and desktops. Android tablets will come from many hardware OEMs but they probably won't be able to charge more than about $350 (and maybe even $250). At the bottom of the pyramid will be the eReaders, which won't be able to charge more than about $150. I'm going to speculate, however, that the price ceiling for eReaders will drop to about $100.

(I'm also going to predict that Amazon will eventually build or release its own Android tablet under the Kindle brand.)

It remains to be seen what comes from RIM and HP/Palm. But what Microsoft should do, with its partners, is develop with a fully functioning PC in a thin and light form factor. It would need a full keyboard that can be detached and/or fits nicely into a case. The iPad, while a great device, can't totally replace a notebook for "content creators." 

With the right form factor and capabilities Microsoft (and partners) could probably get up to about $500. And if such a device were to come into being it could be a big hit and also put pressure on the iPad to lower its prices. 

Despite early skepticism, the iPad has "made" the market for tablets just as the iPhone opened the door for the current generation of smartphones. Now, just as they did and are doing with the iPhone, Apple's competitors will be compelled to react and define themselves against the Apple tablet in terms of features and price.

Google Sends Maps to More Connected Cars

The car is the ultimate "mobile device" isn't it? And increasingly cars are becoming "connected" to the Internet. Google now has an impressive roster of car brands on a global basis to which users can send Google Maps directions.

According to the Google LatLong blog:

With today’s additions, drivers can send destinations from Google Maps directly to their connected vehicles in 19 countries and more than 20 different brands.

In the US alone, Send-To-Car is now available on more than 15 car brands and we hope to see even more partners join us soon.

On a smaller scale Mapquest and Nokia's Ovi Maps offer in-car integration. However Navteq (owned by Nokia) powers most of the PND devices that operate in vehicles in the US. In Europe it's Teleatlas, owned by TomTom. 

Yahoo: iPad Users More 'Gender Balanced'

Yahoo offers its second look at iPad users on the Yahoo network and Yahoo apps. There's nothing dramatic that the company finds but there are some interesting observations about behavior and audience composition:

The user base continues to skew male, but is becoming more gender-balanced; the male to female ratio moved from 2:1 to 3:2:

The sweet spot for [the iPad] user base continues to be in the 30–54 age range, and that about half of the Yahoo! iPad users have been using Yahoo! for at least six years (see charts below).

Regarding international iPad usage, gender and age distribution are very similar to the US. 

In general, the male skew is the same internationally as it is in the U.S., though it is stronger in Japan, where male users outnumber women 4:1. Similarly, the 35–44 age cohort is the largest among all international iPad users on Yahoo!. 

These data suggest, among other things, that there are more similarities than differences among early iPad buyers around the globe. 

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The recently released Pew mobile report featured some interesting data at the end on eReaders and tablets:

• 4% of Americans own eBook Readers and 46% use them to access the Internet, according to Pew's survey
• 3% of respondents said they owned a tablet computer such as an iPad 

These figures illustrate the difficulty and peril of self-reported data and extrapolating that to the larger population. For example, if 3% of US adults (out of a total of about 228 million) actually owned a "tablet computer" that would mean 6.8 million people in the US own them.

The iPad has globally sold something more than 3 million units. Unless people didn't understand what is/was meant by the term tablet computer the survey results overstate the market. There are effectively no other tablets on the market today, except for a couple of isolated Android tablet devices that really haven't penetrated. Windows-based "tablet PCs" have largely failed and so can't be assumed to be part of this response.

Does this inflated result cast some doubt on the larger survey findings? I think directionally they're certainly accurate but may be imprecise, despite the claim of a survey margin of error "plus or minus 2.4 percentage points."  

Has Cisco Killed the RIM Tablet?

Earlier this week Cisco introduced an Android-based tablet called Cius. Here are the top-level specs:

• 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, 3G/4G data and Bluetooth 3.0
• HD video (720p)
• Android operating system, with access Android marketplace applications
• 7” diagonal, high-resolution color screen
• HD Soundstation supports Bluetooth and USB peripherals, 10/100/1000 wired connectivity and a handset option
• Detachable and serviceable 8-hour battery
• Highly secure remote connections with Cisco AnyConnect Security VPN Client
• HD audio with wideband support (tablet, HD Soundstation)

While this is a device that will reportedly support all the Android Market apps, it's aimed at business users and the enterprise.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "trials are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2010, with general availability in the first quarter of next year. Pricing hasn't been set, though a Cisco spokeswoman said Cius will cost less than $1,000."

It's unlikely that a RIM tablet -- unless miraculous -- would be competitive with the iPad in the consumer market. Instead it would fundamentally have to appeal to the core RIM business customers. However I'm sure a RIM tablet will try to have "crossover appeal."

Nothing can be said until one goes "hands on" with these things, but the Cius appears to be quite a competitive little tablet. The question then is: has the Cius just killed or substantially dimmed the enterprise prospects for RIM's rumored tablet device?

I suppose RIM could always compete on price, as it has been in the recent past with its handsets: maintaining sales and market share at the expense of margins. 

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See also Dan Miller's take on Cius: Cisco’s Wireless Android Tablet, Cius, Puts Enterprise Collaboration On the Glass

Amazon Adds Video, Audio to iApps

Amazon is adding video and audio capabilities to its apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch:

Amazon.com . . . today announced a new update to Kindle for iPad and Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch, which allows readers to enjoy the benefits of embedded video and audio clips in Kindle books. The first books to take advantage of this new technology, including Rick Steves' London by Rick Steves and Together We Cannot Fail by Terry Golway . . .

 Here are a few thoughts that immediately come to mind:

• This reflects that more eBooks will offer multi-media going forward. And audio/video will likely become one of the distinguishing features over time vs. traditional books
• Kindle is battling iBook (Apple's eBook store) with rich media and has taken the fight directly to Apple devices. It may have to do the same for Android tablets. Still there is no Kindle for Android
• This is an admission by Amazon that its own Kindle devices (at least those out today) are being eclipsed by the more full-function iPad 

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an Android-based Kindle tablet at some point in the future. In fact I would bet on it.

Apple: 3 Million iPads in 80 Days

The iPad is on fire. This morning Apple announced that it had sold its three millionth iPad in the space of 80 days:

Apple today announced that it sold its three millionth iPad yesterday, just 80 days after its introduction in the US. iPad is a revolutionary and magical product that allows users to connect with their apps, content and the Internet in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before . . .

Developers have created over 11,000 exciting new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. iPad will run almost all of the more than 225,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone or iPod touch . . .

Before its introduction there were many skeptics who doubted the viability of the tablet category and whether people would want the iPad in particular. Now hardware OEMs are scrambling to develop an answer to the iPad and eBook Readers are dropping in price to remain commercially viable.  

By the end of 2010, when there will be Android tablets in the market, Apple will probably have sold at least 8 million iPads on a global basis. It wouldn't be a stretch to predict 10 million sold globally. 

Android, iPad Grow in Latest 'Mobile Mix' Report

Mobile ad network Millennial Media is now putting out two reports on a regular basis: one about mobile advertising (SMART) on its network and the other about devices (Mobile Mix) on its network. Consistent with other networks and data vendors in the market, Millennial has seen considerable Android growth. But the iPad is also growing dramatically.

According to Millennial:

• Android requests grew 15% month-over-month, and have now grown 338% since January.
• The Apple OS remained the leading operating system on the Millennial network, but it had a month-over-month decrease of nearly 14%
• iPad requests grew 160% month-over-month
• For individual manufacturers, HTC received the largest share increase month-over month for the second consecutive month

Below are some of the report's charts, showing the hierarchy of devices and operating systems on Millennial's network. In addition, the company shows the percentage breakdown of developers working on the various smartphone operating systems.

Compare AdMob's most recent mobile metrics report (April, 2010) in terms of devices and operating systems on its network:

Other than the iPhone and the top three Android phones, there's a different array of devices on both lists. The top Android device on Millennial's list, the Nexus One, doesn't event show up on the AdMob list. The AdMob list shows no RIM devices among the top group, whereas the BlackBerry Curve is the number two phone over at Millennial. 

Comparing operating system share on the network also reflects the differences between Millennial and AdMob. Below is AdMob's US operating system share graph for April:

Millennial (top four):

• iPhone: 48%
• RIM: 19%
• Android: 15%
• Other: 8%

AdMob (top four):

• Android: 46%
• iPhone: 38%
• RIM: 9%
• Palm: 3% 

Each of these company specific reports needs to be taken with some caveats and caution. The discrepancies and differences between the networks illustrate this. However, both companies show similar trends: the growth of Android handsets, which makes sense give how many there now are, and the rise of the iPad (AdMob discussed that last month).

iPad Ad Metrics: Novelty or the Start of Something?

There's already been much discussion of some early advertising metrics on the iPad. The following results were published a couple of days ago by ad mediator AdMarvel (owned by Opera), TextPlus and PointRoll (owned by publisher Gannett):

Campaigns that ran the first four weeks after the iPad launch delivered average interaction times across advertisers of 30 seconds, and as high as 53 seconds for one advertiser. Time spent with each ad correlated with the amount of content included in the ads.

In addition, interaction rates (measuring the number of people tapping to expand and engaging with the ads, as a percentage of impressions) ranged from .9% to 1.5% in the first month of the campaign, up to 6 times the benchmark for comparable click-to-expand ads on the desktop. In addition, 67% of users who viewed a video component of the ad in the app watched it all the way through, compared to 53% completion rate for desktop. These findings show that the iPad can be a successful supplement to a 360-degree campaign across devices to strengthen and further lift audience engagement.

(Emphasis added; see ad demo.)

Dynamic Logic and Insight Express have both shown that mobile ads consistently outperform PC advertising across a wide range of metrics and brand indicators. The question of course is whether the increased engagement and metrics are the byproduct of novelty or whether these platforms are going to consistently deliver better performance over time. 

Some of this better performance is clearly novelty but other factors such as less ad clutter and greater "share of voice" on pages make for higher engagement and improved response. Websites on the PC or "fixed" Internet have become a veritable wasteland of clutter and low quality ad content. That's partly why Apple's Safari 5 enables users to eliminate ads from the page.

Even as the Internet has fragmented audiences and eroded if not destroyed some traditional media (e.g., newspapers), online advertising, with the exception of search and one or two other areas, has largely failed. 

The iPad is not a PC, nor is it really a mobile device in the same form as a smartphone. It's more of a portable PC with apps. We still don't  have enough data to know how people use and will use the iPad and its many forthcoming rivals. In my house it has taken time from PC exposure but it's much more a "leisure" or "lean back" device than the PC, which is mostly utilitarian. 

If that use case holds generally for tablets it could be that people will be more receptive to display and rich media ads on them vs. the PC. 

News Corp. Buys Hearst's eReader 'Platform' Skiff

Last year Hearst's Skiff project was one of at least 15 or 20 eReaders coming to market. When it was announced it was conceived of as an integrated package of hardware and software:

Skiff, formerly known as FirstPaper, specializes in the delivery and presentation of newspaper and magazine content, as opposed to other platforms that focus primarily on e-books and plain text. Newspaper and magazine content delivered by Skiff will feature visually appealing layouts, high-resolution graphics, rich typography and dynamic updates . . .

Skiff is working with major consumer electronics manufacturers to integrate Skiff’s service, digital store and specialized client software into a range of innovative devices, the first of which will be unveiled soon . . .

Skiff has signed a multi-year agreement with Sprint (NYSE:S) to provide 3G connectivity for Skiff’s dedicated e-reading devices in the United States. Plans are underway to have Skiff readers available for purchase in more than 1,000 Sprint retail locations across the U.S., as well as online at www.sprint.com. Additional distribution channels will be announced next year.

But that was before the iPad. Today News Corporation announced that it had bought Skiff from Hearst for an undisclosed amount:

News Corporation today announced that it has acquired Skiff, LLC, Hearst Corporation’s e-reading platform designed to deliver premium journalism to tablets, smartphones, e- readers and netbooks. The Company also announced an investment in Journalism Online LLC, the venture dedicated to enabling newspapers, magazines and online-only publishers of quality content to collect revenue from their online readers. The financial terms of both agreements were not disclosed.

Why did Hearst sell? Perhaps because it didn't think it could compete in the devices market. EReader maker IRex recently filed for bankruptcy citing disappointing sales. 

Now it appears that Skiff will become, exclusively, a software platform for News Corp content distribution on a range of devices. There was no mention of hardware in the News Corp. release.

Just as with the smartphone market we may see three or four tablet platforms that are viable: iOS, Android, Kindle (maybe), WebOS/HP (maybe) and Windows 7 (maybe). Most aspiring eReader devices will diversify or fully evolve into software platforms or apps -- e.g. Kindle for iOS, Nook for iPad and now Skiff. 

Google Brings Nav to More Countries, Maps to GM, Upstart App Offers Free Nav to iPhone

Google is making its mobile Navigation app available in more countries, throughout Europe: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. It's voice guided and offers voice search. In a related development, Google expanded the number of European languages for Google Voice Search. 

Google's free Navigation (which works well) has not yet come to the iPhone, whether for technical or competitive reasons. However a new free app from Berlin-Germany based Skobbler offers free turn by turn navigation on the iPhone. I haven't used it so can't comment on its quality. It uses OpenStreetMap for base data. 

Finally, Google Maps are now a part of GM's OnStar functionality. Users can email directions from PC-based Google Maps to select GM cars. Ford has also integrated Google Maps into its Sync system and will allow users to send directions to Sync from the PC or smartphones. Sync was co-developed with Microsoft so I would expect comparable functionality for Bing. 

AdMob Introduces New iPad Ad Formats

Not waiting or wanting to be upstaged by the launch of iAds, Google-owned AdMob is introducing new ad formats for the iPad. These new formats include text, tile and image ads. The company will also be rolling out interactive HTML5 ads in the near future:

AdMob was one of the first companies to launch ad units for both iPhone and Android applications, and now we’re helping to drive innovation on the iPad. We consider today’s launch of text & tile and image ads for iPad native apps to just be the starting point.  We’re always thinking about what’s next and working to leverage the unique capabilities of mobile platforms to create engaging ad experiences.  With that in mind, we’ve put together a sneak preview of the creative potential of iPad ads using HTML5.

AdMob put together what a mock up of what such an ad might look like:

While digital creative has a way to go, though is improving, for smartphones, agencies and marketers' creative efforts may really shine on the larger screen and accompanying formats made possible by the iPad. 

Wired's iPad Launch a Reasonable Start

Wired magazine launched on the iPad about a week ago and I just got around to paying the $4.99 "cover price." The company reported about 24,000 downloads in the first 24 hours. It's currently the second most popular paid app, so I'd guess the downloads have nearly doubled by now.

Wired sells about 82,000 single copies per issue, according to one of the Wired blogs. The print magazine has about 672,000 subscribers.

There are a number of innovative elements in the iPad version of the magazine; however in general it felt as though the company had merely scanned the pages into the digital format. Indeed, the overall translation of Wired to the iPad was relatively uninspired.

I was also struck by how many ad pages there were. In order to "work," ads on the iPad will need to be more thoughtful and compelling than simply electronic versions of the print ad. A few ads did have video. 

Below I've highlighted some of the interactive elements of the Wired iPad app:

It would be relatively easy for Wired's iPad edition to exceed newsstand single copy sales in a short period of time. However the company can and should do more in later issues to take advantage of the digital format, interactive features and video capability.

I think Time did a better job with its iPad launch. 

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Related: Adobe reveals magazine iPad-izer software