Several newspapers including The Guardian, The Times and La Repubblica launched apps on the same day the iPad went on sale, in an effort to capitalise on the new platform from the off.

But will Apple’s tablet really re-invent the publishing industry? Judging by our early impressions of applications, the answer is yes, but it will take time.

Some applications on offer showed how the iPad can turn reading a magazine into an interactive, immersive experience, while others simply felt exactly the same as their printed versions, only projected through a shiny 9.7in screen.

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way. Although the iPad comes with 3G and Wi-Fi, downloading newspapers and magazine can be frustrating.

On more than one occasion, it took at least 15 minutes to download an edition of The Sun, and we could not exit the app to perform other tasks as this would cause the download to stop. The lack of push function on the majority of apps was also baffling, especially when a monthly subscription was paid for.

The Sun’s newspaper app came with the tag stating it is especially “for the iPad”, but it felt no different from the printed version of the paper.

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