It may turn out that the reason I’m so ho-hum about the Apple tablet — the iSlate? — to be unveiled at a high-profile press event today (starting at 10 a.m. Pacific) is that it’s more about content than it is about technology:

Apple’s goal is to offer a new platform for content creators to reinvent books, magazines and online content — in addition to offering a new avenue for content producers to make money. That platform will likely be far broader than just a tablet device, and will extend to every device or computer that iTunes touches.

HTML5 and iTunes will form the centerpieces of Apple’s new content strategy. The new iTunes content will not be packaged as apps sold through the App Store, though Apple will likely provide a tablet app for displaying new content created with this new platform, and developers will still be free to create apps. Instead, HTML content will be presented similar to the way iTunes currently presents enhanced music and video content.

“The focus is going to be on content creation and participation,” a technologist with close ties to Apple told Wired.com. “If the tablet is going to be an answer to things like the Kindle, which are purely about consumption, what you’re going to see is Apple is going to be full-blown about creation.”

Apple has been talking with television networks, magazines and videogame publishers about content for the device. But the biggest buzz is around publishing. The WSJ sees a battle between Apple and Amazon over how e-books will be priced and distributed:

Apple’s business model for books, which the company has kept under tight wraps, shifts the focus away from the bargain-basement prices Amazon has made popular, according to publishers that have met directly with the company. Apple is asking publishers to set two e-book price points for hardcover best sellers: $12.99 and $14.99, with fewer titles offered at $9.99. In setting their own e-book prices, publishers would avoid the threat of heavy discounting. Apple would take a 30% cut of the book price, with publishers receiving the remaining 70%. Apple’s vision is at odds with Amazon.com, which has shaken the book industry by slashing prices of e-books on its Kindle reader and making the $9.99 e-book bestseller a fixture.

Wired’s live coverage of the event will be here; CNet’s here; The NYTimes here; Apple Insider here.

SEE ALSO: Silicon Alley Insider’s Chart of the Day, Apple is now the iPhone company.