Disney pins digital media hopes on Apple's iPad

Contending Apple's forthcoming iPad could be a "game changer," Walt Disney Company president and CEO Robert Iger said the family entertainment giant will look to the tablet device to revive its gaming fortunes, adding it will also develop new forms of digital content optimized for portable media hardware. "[The iPad] will enable us to create product that's different from the product that we see on television and internet-connected television," Iger said during Disney's first-quarter earnings call, adding the company will shift its gaming focus away from more costly console development in favor of titles earmarked for devices like the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch as well as Nintendo's Wii platform.

Iger added that Disney is presently at work on a new web-based ereader format enabling children to read and sing along with their favorite books. "We think digital media, while clearly significant, is still evolving," he said. "This is the beginning of the beginning, and that's how we look at it."

For more on Disney's digital media outlook:
- read this Times Online article

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