Will the iPad encourage users to pay for online news contents? Honestly, nobody knows it. 

Consumers are used to spend money using mobile devices, contrary to what happens when using computers.

In the last decade, while people downloaded music illegally to their desktop computers, they paid small amounts of money on their cellphones to download ring tones and send text messages. Later on, the iPhone has proved that the economics of the mobile devices are unique: the Apple App Store will generate $1.4 billion this year.

The New York Times quoted last week an expert saying this: "When you have a device that is this convenient and fun for consumers to use, you can get a lot more people interested in paying for and engaging with content. Big media companies should be all over this like a cheap suit."

For now these are some the latest moves in the media industry I have collected:

• The New York Times has developed a version for the iPad. 
   
• Conde Nast and Time Inc. are working on their versions to enter the iPad market.
   
• The Wall Street Journal begun last year charging for access certain elements of its iPhone application.
   
• Esquire and GQ offer iPhone versions of their magazines for $2.99 for each issue. The December issue of GQ was downloaded from the app store almost 7,000 times.
   
• Major publishers as Time, Conde Nast, Meredith, the News Corporation and Hearst announced last year the creation of a consortium, called Next Issue Media, that plans to run its own online store selling digital issues and collecting consumer information.