An attendee tests an Asus tablet computer at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics

Kenneth Kidd Feature Writer

Two years ago, Steve Jobs stood on his hind legs and gave voice to what seemed to be considerable iScorn.

The Apple CEO insisted that Amazon's then-new Kindle and other e-book readers faced a very dim future in a society growing less literary by the minute.

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is; the fact is that people don't read anymore," said Jobs. "Forty per cent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year."

An attendee tests an Asus tablet computer at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month. Apple was to launch its own tablet device Wednesday.

With Wednesday's unveiling of an Apple computer tablet, the extent to which Jobs was then either deluded or deliberately misleading may start to be known.

If the swirl of speculation proves enlightened, Apple's new device amounts to an iPhone on steroids – and one so laden with media partnerships (The New York Times, Condé Nast, Harper Collins) that it may change the way people read and interact with traditional media outlets.

A gaming device and telephone, the device will also reputedly let you download everything from iTunes to movies and books. In fact, it's hard to imagine what you won't be able to do on the 10-inch screen of a tablet said to be priced between $500 and $1,000 (U.S.).

"Apple is in a killer position," says James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. "The Apple tablet will be the first to make the claim that you can read everything from Sesame Street to Dan Brown to the Atlantic to the Denver Post, all on the same device."

That, in turn, will put pressure on traditional media companies to create content that is unique to Apple's new tablet.

Imagine reading a digital version of, say, Sports Illustrated, and being able to touch the screen to watch game-winning plays, not to mention scantily clad young women annually frolicking in the waves.

National Geographic, for instance, is already planning to add audio and video to its digital magazine later this year.

If the past is any guide, Apple's new iTablet (iPad, iSlate?) will start by taking what's already available and making it intuitive, stylish and much-coveted.

The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player on the market, but it was smaller and packed with a lot more capacity. Nor was the iPhone the first telephone with web-browsing and email capacity.

But both completely changed the market, and the iPhone, with its 3.5-inch screen, sparked a software-writing frenzy when Apple opened it up to outside programmers in 2008.

"Given the success of the iPhone, developers are going to start devoting resources to developing for the bigger format," says Gene Munster, a senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray. "The larger screen really plays to the imagination and clearly gives the app developers a new kind of canvas."

Should the likes of Sony (PlayStation) and Microsoft (Xbox 360) be worried?

The betting line thus far is no – or at least not yet. Hard-core gamers will still want consoles at home, argues Ian Lynch Smith, the president of Freeverse, a developer of iPhone and Mac games.

"But I can see the tablet taking almost all of the casual to moderate gamer market."

"Games have become the killer pursuit on all new devices," says Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga, the company behind such Facebook games as ``FarmVille.''

"They are the reason people buy major new hardware from the Xbox to the iPhone."