This post yesterday from PhotoShelter was/is of great interest to me as I have just started taking my iPad with me on appointments. Just like most other technology that has come along since I started shooting, the iPad probably won't replace anything. It is just another thing I have to maintain. I started in the early 90s with 2 portfolios containing laminated prints and a promo card, and at the height of the boom I had 12 printed portfolios, a yearly sourcebook ad, and quarterly promo pieces. Now it is a little of everything: a couple portfolios, web site, mobile web site, iPad portfolio, targeted MagCloud booklets & printed promo pieces, FoundFolio source book ads, and the dreaded Email campaigns.
"I’ve heard more than one Art Buyer and Photo Editor comment that if they see another iPad portfolio they’re going to scream"
As far as the iPad replacing the portfolio, it's probably not going to happen. See Rob's post on APhotoEditor today regarding the photo shelter post I mentioned above. However, I effing LOVE the iPad as a portfolio. Not because it is cheaper, and yes, it is cheaper if you can believe that. I love it because it is really cool, possibly one of the best ways to view images I have seen. It is a fabulously designed, portable, powerful device that is easily updated and transported. When I head out on appointments these days I bring along my iPad with my latest edit of work. The interaction with the screen creates an intimate relationship with the viewer much like that of a book, something the laptop was never able to achieve. If editors and buyers hate looking at them eventually as much as they hate email promos now, then I won't show it to them. But right now, for me, it rocks.
