Last Thursday at the PGA Show, Golf Digest unveiled their vision of Golf Digest and Golf World magazines on the newly-announced iPad or other similar tablet technology. 

The tablet revolution is coming.  It will likely transform how people interact with Web content on a daily basis because of its portability, easy to access applications, and its ease of use is a major selling point for those less tech savvy consumers.  The bottom line is that the tablet may well have a place on your coffee table in the same way your remote control does (and your newspaper did before e-readers).

Provided that the audience for golf is an older demographic, it can be nothing but good for publications like Golf Digest and SI's Golf Magazine - which unveiled a similar concept a few months prior - to be able to appeal to long-time print subscribers in a new, yet familiar electronic format.

The iPad and the advent of other equally capable tablet technologies are likely to be the impetus for a substantial change in how we interact with content.  The tablet concept lends itself heavily to multitouch technology, meaning less typing and more poking.  The tablet also allows consumers to experience content in a much more immersive and beautiful way.  These devices will be equipped with stunning displays that are perfect for killer photography and videography.

What that means for golf - arguably the most visually stunning and dependent of all sports - is great for publications like Golf Digest that are struggling to make the profitable transition from being dependent on print to thriving digitially. 

Interacting with text and photographs and video will become easier and a more common experience.  The layout of that content will be much more likely to resemble, well, a magazine than a blog or a website.  It will likely come to us through separate and distinct applications, developed specifically for that purpose.  Subscriptions to individual issues or full years will be available with the touch of a button in the same fashion that iTunes convinced people to buy single tracks. 

Imagine an eMagazine like Global Golf Post, but simultaneously interacting with it in the familiar fashion of a magazine and the addictive experience of the Web.  The existence of tablet devices will fulfill the potential that those eMags exhibit. 

By being able to translate magazines and newspapers to digital tablet apps, their existence can continue at lower cost than print and prove to be a better experience.  It is a win for them on the content front and on the bottom line, as advertisers will be able to gain more bang for their buck by embedding content in advertising.

What that means for the smaller content provider, such as a blog, is that they will be at least a short-term disadvantage because they will be unable to compete with app-based content - provided that the quality of content in apps similar to Golf Digest will be as good as that on the good ole Internet.  In time, though, small-time players in the content world will catch up and a certain few will actually beat these publications to the punch.