On April 3rd, 2010, the publishing industry as we’ve known it changed forever. The iPad, an evolutionary game-changer, hit the hands of the consumer for the very first time.

Since launching one of the coolest, groundbreaking technological devices in history, Apple (AAPL) is selling over 1 million iPads a month. We were able to get our hands on an iPad just a few weeks after Steve Jobs gave his presentation and Apple began selling it to the public.

First-Mover Advantage Wins Again

From the iPod to the iPad, Apple (AAPL) understands the most vital ingredients necessary to deliver new product innovation to consumers. That is why to date Apple still cannot satisfy demand for the iPad.

The iPad was the must-have device once it was released because there was nothing else like it in existence. Now, it’s back-to-school Summer shopping season, and all I see everywhere is free marketing for the iPad (e.g., sign up for [enter the service here] and enter your chance to win a free iPad). Simply put, the word-of-mouth marketing for the iPad is reminiscent of the iPod days. The iPad is the new hot tech gadget on the block that is cool for just about any co-promotion out there.

Here is your Cheat Sheet Review of the iPad:

The Screen is Superior

The iPad possesses the sleekest 9.7 inch touch screen on the e-reader/tablet market, easily surpassing the Nook (BKS) and Kindle (AMZN). The screen is color, visually displays a crisp picture, and allows for very easy navigation.

When surfing the web or reading a book from the Apple store, the text is super easy to read. You can manually enlarge or minimize the screen with your finger on the touch screen based on your visual preferences. Additionally, the iPad acts as a mobile photo album with a digital picture frame. Standing on its own, the iPad is a half-inch thin and only 1.5 lbs.

The iPad is Also a Bigger iPod

Whether you are sitting pool side this Summer and need some tunes or you’re inside and want to hook your iTunes playlist into your speakers, the iPad serves as a mobile modern day boom box — only smaller, lighter and thinner. The audio quality and sound output on the iPad is as clear as a sunny day at the beach.

The Durability of the iPad Case is a Must

One of my major concerns with the device was the fragility of it while being mobile. I always felt I had to be extra cautious with it so I did not scratch the screen or get any dirt particles on it. All worries of device protection were alleviated with the iPad case. The flap covers the screen so the case opens like a book. If you are going to own an iPad, I highly recommend this case:

Other Key Positive Attributes:

- The App store is incredibly large and diverse in its offering.

- With the use of Dictation, I could speak to the iPad and it would convert my voice to text. Then, I could email myself notes I recorded, never having to type one button on a keyboard.

- Browsing the web was just as a easy as being on a laptop. Personally, I think the iPad gives laptops/netbooks a run for their money sooner than later. The mobility of the iPad is one of its greatest features. With a laptop, you need to pick it up and carry it around and set it down to begin typing. I could be standing up and easily type or surf on the iPad.

- The battery life was better than the Energizer bunny. I could spend all day, at least 10 hours, using the iPad and it still had remaining life. Whereas, with my MacBook, after just 3 hours of use my battery is signaling shutdown.

A Few Missing Links We May See in the Future

- Unfortunately, I could not multi-task on the iPad. But then again, it’s probably a good thing to stay focused on the task at hand. It would be beneficial down the road to be able to have a document open and also browse the web simultaneously.

- There is no video camera for web video conferencing. With such an incredible screen, it seems a future development could come in the form of more “Facetime” similar to the new iPhone 4.

- Eventually, I would also like to see Flash support. There’s nothing more frustrating than visiting a site on the web and not being able to load the video when you want it.

For additional suggestions for the future iPad, check out Tech Cheat Sheet Editor Elliot Turner’s latest list.

The Real Result: Apple Sold 3.27 Million iPads in 3rd Quarter

According to Apple’s 2nd quarter earnings report, Steve Jobs is saving technology with a major catalyst during a “steep uphill climb” in this economic environment. The truth is always in the numbers and the consumer is always right. In Apple’s case, the iPad is officially a hit and exceeded everyone’s expectations on innovation and first generation capabilities.

Recently, I spoke with an anonymous Apple retail distributor and they said, “Apple is rationing iPads to retail locations. We have a laundry list of interested iPad buyers who put their name down at our store. We anxiously await iPads from Apple and customers anxiously await iPads from us.”

Pricing:

Do not underestimate the powerful capability of Apple’s efficient and methodical planning to yield successful sales. Apple continues to prove to all the sideline observers, fans, skeptics, and analysts alike, there is no ‘economic slowdown’ or ‘jobless recovery’ or even ‘Great Consumer Recession’ at Apple … just a brewing American capitalist economy success story in its prime.

How many iPads did Apple sell in 110+ days? We’ll have to anxiously await the next update … stay tuned! Let us know if you are going to be one of those new iPad owners. Or, if you have an iPad, share your review in the comments below.

A federal class-action lawsuit will move forward against Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and AT&T (NYSE: T) for ”locking” iPhones to AT&T’s network, and Apple’s control over which apps can be installed on the owner’s phone.

This is an issue of whether a purchaser of iPhones has purchased all the ownership rights to the device or whether Apple somehow has reserved a parcel of ownership. If the courts rule Apple and AT&T may exert special control over iPhones after a customer has purchased the device, it sets the tone for hardware manufacturers to limit and manipulate the use of mobile communications.

Personally, I tend to favor freedom and innovation. Why should Steve Jobs decide whether Adobe’s (Nasdaq: ADBE) Flash should become extinct? Isn’t this the same thing as allowing only Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Explorer to work as a browser on Windows?

More importantly, the single biggest complaint about iPhone has been AT&T’s horrendous cell phone coverage. It is one thing to force consumers into a short-term exclusive agreement. It is another to force them to use a service provider which is not providing reasonable service.

We are still in only the very early childhood of the Internet. In order to encourage innovation and the birth of industries not yet imagined, we should hold off on giving a very small handful of early pioneers the power to kill off too many potential paths to our economic future.

A reasonable compromise is one which Toyota (NYSE: TM) has with its Prius customers. A Prius owner is free to modify their vehicle for their personal benefit. However, modification immediately terminates Toyota’s vehicle warranty. So, if we want to pimp our ride or install a 100 mpg battery, Toyota doesn’t have to deal with helping us anymore. Why not the same for the iPhone or any hardware for that matter?

Despite the depressing recession, desperation appears to be mothering ingenuity in many different industries. If the world does not come to an end, the next generation of Internet-based technology will absolutely be one of the most exciting developments the world has ever seen. Let’s hope at least our judicial branch can protect us from those who envision a much more monopolized future.

The Wall St. Cheat Sheet Premium Newsletter has delivered 15 out of 16 winning picks since inception in November 2008. Let the Hoffman Brothers give you their best investing and trading ideas: click here now for your free trial.

Last week at the Newhouse conference for Monetizing Online Business, I caught up with Foursquare Co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley to ask him what every entrepreneur wants to know from the hottest guy in mobile start-up land: What is your single best piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

In addition to the answer Dennis offers in the video, he also noted that we should expect some exciting things from Foursquare this summer as they are working hard to hit the same tipping point which catapulted Twitter into the main stream. Given how well they’ve succeeded on Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android phones, we think they have a great chance to make it to the big time.

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This is a contribution by Steven Duque at Living in the Future.

Mobile internet is here to stay, and our social lives — that is, how we interact with others, the content we consume, and the things we buy — will be indelibly shaped by its imminent ubiquity.

The Dawn of the Mobile Internet Era

Morgan Stanley’s Mary Meeker — the ‘Queen of the Internet‘ behind both Netscape’s and Google’s (GOOG) initial public offerings — recently provided research and insights into the upward trend of the mobile web and social networking.

Among her more startling predictions was that, within the next five years,

“…more users will connect to the Internet over mobile devices than desktop PCs.”

This trend, Meeker posits, marks the beginning of the fifth era of modern-day technology’s historical progression, roughly approximated below.

1. 1950’s-1960’s: the mainframe era
2. 1970’s: the mini-computer era
3. 1980’s: the desktop era
4. 1990’s-2000’s: the internet era
5. 2010’s-: the mobile internet era

And, compared to the uptake of desktop internet usage, mobile internet usage is growing at a considerably faster rate. This rate, Meeker and her team suggest, is evidenced by the disparity between contemporary adoption rates of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone/iPod touch versus AOL/Netscape in the early 1990’s — a staggering 11x difference. This trend, Meeker et al. add, is enhanced by the rise of 3G technology, which is available to nearly 21 percent of the world’s cellular users. Japan leads 3g penetration levels with a breath-taking 96 percent.

Data Usage and a Shafting Landscape for Carrier Networks

Carrier networks, however, will face the challenge of dealing with increasingly cumbersome data loads, as mobile internet usage continues to rise. At present, Meeker’s research notes, average cell phone users’ usage patterns consist in roughly 70 percent voice. In contrast, iPhone users’ voice usage only comprises 45 percent of bandwidth usage. Carrier network NTT DoCoMo of Japan, which Meeker (and others) assume to provide the model for the mobile internet’s future, reports a significantly different pattern: data usage comprises 90 percent of network traffic.

By 2014, Meeker et al. predict, data traffic will increase by roughly 4,000 percent, with the expectation that each year the annual growth rate will exceed 100 percent. Some U.S. networks — namely, AT&T (T) — are already encountering problems in highly populated areas (e.g., New York and San Francisco) due to increased data loads. The data logjam on their network, AT&T claims, is due primarily to iPhone users. Comprising only three percent of the AT&T’s customer base, iPhone users reportedly consume approximately 40 percent of the network’s capacity. And data loads look as though they’re only getting heavier. The next wave of smartphones look more hungry for data than ever.

The Next Wave of Smart Phones (in the Foreseeable Future)

• HTC’s new phone, EVO 4G, comes video chat-ready. Apple’s new iPhone promises to offer similar functionality (through iChat) in its latest iteration, though one wonders when Apple will bring video chat to the iPad.
• Rumors that Facebook will produce its own phone are preceded by Microsoft’s (MSFT) unveiling of its Kin, a social media-focused smart phone with otherwise lightweight hardware.
• Google’s Nexus One and Motorola’s (MOT) Droid have subsumed the ‘traditional’ role of mobile GPS navigation devices, and look to enlarge their stake in the navigation market, unfortunately for Garmin (GRMN) and TomTom.
• HP’s (HPQ) recent purchase of Palm promises the advent of a whole new slough of business-ready smart phones that will compete with Blackberry’s (RIMM) newest line of preferred devices for the suits & ties.

What It Means for the Future of Content Production

• Advertising: The most important platform for reaching a captive audience will not be TV, e-mail or the (desktop) internet. Rather, it will be through mobile phones — and companies are catching on. Apple’s iAd will provide developers and agencies opportunities to deliver in-app advertisements. Google is hot on its tails with its attempted purchase of AdMob, but has encountered snags along the way.
• Publishing: It’s  obvious that big publishers are well on their way to taking their content live on the mobile internet. In the near future, do-it-yourself mobile content publishing programs like Maxdox and full-service companies like PressMart will provide publishers — both small and mid-sized — the tools they need to bring their content into the mobile internet era. This point doesn’t take into account the imminent increase in usage of various online publishing platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
• Virtual Goods: With nearly $600m in revenue and $1 per average user engagement, FarmVille’s continued success has proven that virtual goods are no longer a trend relegated to the Far East. And both Foursquare’s and Gowalla’s location-based apps center their models on rewarding users with virtual honors like ‘badges’ and other rewards, sometimes in exchange for real rewards. With the rise of upstarts like Booyah and an ever-growing potential base of users, virtual goods are becoming an unforeseen form of content that is certainly a force to be reckoned with, given it’s significant revenue generation and popularity.

That’s it for now, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on what the rise of the mobile internet means for other aspects of life — technology, media, culture, life or otherwise. Please provide comments below!

Remember back in 1999 when telecom was the white hot thing … and then it was the source of your near coronary when Lucent (LU), JDS Uniphase (JDSU), WorldCom et al. brought your 401(k) to its knees? Well, telecom is back and now it’s mobile.

The past few years have seen extraordinary gains for companies like Research in Motion (RIMM) and Apple (AAPL) with the Blackberry and iPhone, respectively. However, until recently, the mobile web was not functional for anyone except technofiles. But times they are a changin’ …

Monday Google (GOOG) announced the purchase of mobile advertising leader AdMob. The three-year old firm cleared a sweet $750 million for figuring out what Google and other giants could not: how to effectively cram ads onto tiny screens. The important point to note is the amount of money involved and the 1999-esque feeling that mobile is generating in investment circles. Sure, you’ve been reading about apps and games, but this is a glaring sign that mobile is starting to generate very big money.

While all the doom and gloomers cannot see anything but digression ahead, young industries such as mobile, health tech, alternative energy and others will line up to be the next great economic engine of the world. As far as I have noticed, from the rural fields of Thailand to the skyscrapers of Manhattan, cellphones are everywhere. Keep your eye on the ball and you will see the businesses of tomorrow sprouting today.

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