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So we know that the iPad is often criticized as a device that tries to be everything to everyone, but does not excel at any particular discipline. Amazon’s Kindle comes up as an example very often, in which the Kindle is described as the better specialized ebook reader as it has the better screen for reading and better battery life. However, we are also seeing first signs of a new development in ebooks where ebooks turn into multimedia apps that simply can’t run on a Kindle.

Michael Wolf has recently written a great article on this topic for GigaOm Pro (subscription required), and sheds light on what he calls enhanced ebooks. Wolf believes that enhanced ebooks are just developing with all the disadvantages that come along with such a trend – such as inconsistent apps for different platforms, but it is easy to see that, if he is right, that the iPad may be much better positioned for media-rich ebooks than the Amazon Kindle.

That trend has lots of implications for developers, which may suddenly be able to go into a business that was previously reserved for printing services, but offer new types of applications that, for example, create ebook platforms and allow content creators to easily publish media rich magazines, newsletters or ebooks. The market opportunity is substantial, as Amazon announced this week that it is now selling more ebooks than hardcover versions.

Wolf believes that enhanced ebooks may result “in a whole new digital book industry, much like has been seen in the digital video and music industries.” He sees the iPad as a key platform as this trend and consumer perception will evolve. “The media-consumption friendliness of the iPad is a natural choice for authors looking to create a multimedia-laden e-book,” he wrote.

Apple will begin selling the iPad in 9 more countries on Friday. Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore will be added to the existing base, as Apple has been able to ramp its production to support new geographies.

However, “support” is somewhat relative as market researchers and analysts believe that Apple can still not meet actual demand and that iPad sales are limited by production capacity and not demand. iSuppli today raised its unit forecast by 81% to 12.9 million units for 2010. Next year, Apple may sell 36.5 million iPads and in 2012 50.6 million. If iSuppli is correct than Apple may sell 100 million iPads in less than three years, which makes it an interesting app platform, perhaps even more interesting than the iPhone for some.

“The iPad is shaping up to be the ‘Tickle Me Elmo’ of the 2010 holiday season, with product demand expected to vastly exceed available supply,” said Rhoda Alexander, director of monitor research for iSuppli.

For 2010, Apple is estimated to hold an 84% market share in tablet PCs and continue to dominate the segment at least until 2012. Competition may be insignificant until 2011 when other players, including HP, will have some products to show. iSuppli believes that Apple cannot sit back and just enjoy the success, but actually think about product improvements for next year. Likely additional changes will embrace an internal camera and expansion of the product line, potentially including additional screen sizes, the company said.

Apple rivals, on the other side, will have to focus less on the hardware but relate more to the suite of applications that can be paired with the hardware.

I may be speculating here, but I feel that this was not the last adjusted iPad forecast for the year.

With all the hoopla surrounding the iPhone antenna issues, it’s easy to imagine that Apple may be losing some buyers to Android. There is enough confusion out there to suggest that a different smartphone may be a better smartphone right now.

However, the antenna issue has not really big impact on prospective buyers that are new to Apple, but it may have an impact on iPhone upgrades, which should make you think twice about iOS 4. IDC has published brief results of a survey that asked people whether they are still interested in buying an iPhone 4. 74% of those who wanted to buy an iPhone before have not changed their mind. However, 66% of those who own an iPhone already said they are delaying an upgrade to the iPhone 4. IDC did not break out numbers of those iPhone owners and which iPhones they own.

Of course, those numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt as purchase intentions do not really relate to actual behavior and intentions can change in an instant. However, the numbers may reflect the current mood in the market, which we would describe as cautious. IDC noted that the actual impact of the antenna issues and the effect of Apple’s response to give out free bumpers will only reveal itself over the next few months. That said, Steve Jobs said that more than 3 million iPhones have been sold already.

Wired will be running an article in its upcoming August issue that will shed some light on the rather difficult relationship between Apple and AT&T. While it is always difficult to determine how accurate such reports are, the article promises to provide background information why AT&T seems to be falling of what the iPhone really would need.

Apparently, Apple is not as happy with AT&T as it is publicly stated by the company. According to the article Jobs considered dropping AT&T “more than a dozen times”. It isn’t difficult to figure out what the differences between the two companies really are – it comes down to data capability and affordability. For example, Apple wanted tethering to be included in the data plan, AT&T wanted extra money – which makes sense, as AT&T’s cellular network has been brought down to its knees due heavy data usage and extra charges would create a barrier for additional data use (and deliver extra revenue, of course.)

We can only imagine how much the two are arguing over Facetime and its availability on the 3G network.

There is also some information on the never ending rumors of a Verizon iPhone. The article states that Apple considered switching to Verizon several times, but concluded that the different chip sizes and the tight iPhone design would require Apple to create a CDMA iPhone from the ground up. The article isn’t out yet, but it is worth the read when published.