Sport’s Illustrated have produced a nice little demo of the types of content and interfaces that we can expect from devices like the iPad:

In terms of general approach it’s not too far away from Bonnie’s prototype created by Berg.

Beyond the cleverness in interface and content, these devices present a real opportunity to take ad targeting to the next level.

Historical location based targeting has struggled to take off. It’s generally mobile based and plays out as follows: I’m passing Boots and get a Bluetooth coupon giving me 50% off toothpaste. 2 problems. 1. No targeting - it blanket sweeps all passers by. 2. Timing - I might want toothpaste, but I’m on my way elsewhere and don’t have time to stop.

So what’s needed is a system that a) learns what I buy and b) learns when I buy it, or more importantly when I’m thinking about buying it so I can plan for changes.

By using these 2 bits of info in combination brands can gain visibility to the right people at the point of decision, and not just when their physically near a point of sale.

I’ll bring in Dopplr’s rather snazzy diagram at this point to help explain things: (you can read their use of it here)

The bit where the 2 cones converge is the sweet spot. This is the present where the past and the future collide. Now we’ve highlighted that just getting into the present doesn’t necessarily work, it’s the decision making present we want to find. That’s when the What and the When need to be delivered.

And that’s where these devices play their part.

On the whole we’re all creatures of routine. We do the same things on the same days, buy the same brands with the same frequency and generally speaking, patterns emerge.

By interpreting these patterns and tying all these loose ends of learnings together for a single cause, we face the exciting prospect that these devices will enable brands to deliver their messages with maximum efficiency.

See here for further insights.