I am a Zinio user for years, and always admired their ability to translate the experience of reading a physical magazine into the digital world.

When the iPad was launched yesterday, while trying to think about potential uses for the device, the most compelling one that came to my mind was reading magazines, and Zinio is very well positioned for that.

Although the iBook application can be interesting, the e-Ink technology provided by the Kindled and many other devices (including my Cybook Opus) can't be beaten in terms of reading experience for books. However, when it comes to reading magazines and experiencing colors and different designs, than we are talking about a very compelling potential differentiation for the iPad.

The folks at Zinio are already working on porting their magazines to the iPhone, but this is not an easy task. Zinio is flash-based, and as you know, flash is not available through Apple's iPad and iPhone. They built an app that has potential, but is still not there. Also, there is only a limited number of publications available now.

In my opinion, to accelerate this process, Apple should partner (or acquire) Zinio, and make this unique capability a true selling point for their new device. Since I don't believe this will ever happen, I hope the team behing Zinio can be fast enough to take advantage of this unparalleled opportunity.

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