Apple fans were in awe when Steve Jobs introduced the iPad earlier this year.  I must admit, I surrendered to the Apple hype machine and made it a priority to purchase by the end of the year.  (FYI, I have not made the purchase just yet, so anyone looking to buy me a gift, I’d gladly accept.) Do I need it?  No.  But, it’s just so dang cool.  The biggest game changer is not the mobility or the book reader – I love my books and I am not about to use my bookshelf for knickknacks and chochkies – it’s the new way I can consume newspapers and magazines on it.

Consumers shouldn’t be the only ones excited.  Digital publishers that have struggled with ways to monetize their media should find plenty of opportunities from the iPad.  Just think about the kinds of interaction they can offer advertisers; interactive ads that jump off the screen versus static pages readers would normally flip through.  That is enough to help give a boost to digital ad rates don’t you think? So it was not really surprising when a recent study came out hyping the effectiveness of ads viewed on the iPad.

According to the recent study of rich media ads from textPlus, pointRoll and AdMarvel, in the first four weeks of the iPad’s release, ad interaction times were 30 seconds, ad interaction rates range from .9 to 1/5% (6X higher than desktop ads) and 67% of users who viewed the ads’ video component watch all the way though as compared to 53% for the desktop.  Not too shabby.  Of course it is still too early to see the effect the iPad will have, but there is no question digital publishers need to incorporate iPad versions of their publications to stay relevant.