The iPad cometh, and Pandora and National Public Radio say they’re ready. Yesterday Pandora announced Pandora on the iPad:
“I think of it as the ultimate lean-in Pandora experience,” declares Pandora CTO Tom Conrad. “Just tap the Pandora icon and let the music play while you read about the bands and music you discover. Pass it back and forth with a friend and share your discoveries. My hope is that it can play the same role that the album cover did when I was a kid—something concrete to enjoy and share as the music plays. There’s something magical about that, and this really is a magical device.”
Meanwhile NPR, whose website just won a Peabody award, says it’s totally on top of the iPad situation, given that five percent of its polled listeners say they’re considering purchasing the device. Features on the iPad app will include (NPR says):
- Re-imagined NPR experience that’s visually stunning
- Maximized touch controls and gesture-based navigation
- Ability to bookmark your favorite stations
- Navigation bar that puts you in control of your audio experience
- Magazine-style presentation that invites you to browse, think, reflect, imagine, and make your own NPR moments
- Includes popular features from the iPhone app, including playlist, station finder, and sharing
It seems like just about every innovator out there is ready for the iPad. The question is whether this “magical device,” which creates a middle ground between the laptop and the mobile phone, will be embraced by consumers as passionately as it has been by developers. We’ll all know soon enough.
