The time has come, again to rant about the past year. However,
there are a variety of subjects to choose from. One could go on about
the current state of the telecommunications industry, and the future on
online viewing habits and venues, to the recent advances in
television technology.
However, there are bigger issues that need addressing. Such as Gun
Control, Mental Health, and fiscal responsibility of our government, and
the like. Its all fine and dandy to sit here in our techie towers and
ponder the future of telecommunications, which is important, but in the
final analysis, if the country has lost its moral compass and its roots
all the technology in the world won’t get it back on the right track.
It will just go down the wrong way in a technological blaze of glory,
which will keep people from seeing what the real problems are.
The shooting last year , prompted me to write about my views on gun
control, particularly concealed carry. I don’t belive new rules
governing guns are going to solve the problem. The majority of shooting
are done by people who have mental issues who were not treated properly
or at all. In many cases they were dumped from one organization back and
forth to another and no one took responsibility for making sure they
got what they needed, either treatment that worked or locked up for both
their and societal safety. The point is everyone who has any
responsibility in any level of government is too busy playing the blame
game, pointing their fingers at everyone elses when the Sh**t hit the
Fan, No one has gumption enough to stand up and say, he was my patient,
or our department was handling him, and frankly, we screwed up, and
we’re looking to see where we screwed up. No one has said anything
remotely like that, nor will they, because, the would be taking
responsibility for ones own actions, or in some cases inaction.
This country was founded on a principle that all men are created
equal, and should be given the benefit of the doubt, and along with
certain other rights, such as to vote, and pursue that which give us
pleasure, so long as it do no harm, to society . When the government
has become so big and complicated that many times one department doesn't
know what the others are doing, there is a fundamental issue with the
power structure, and delegation of authority, and who answers to who.
While it is clearly laid out in the constitution, and on the state
levels, Sometimes many things are lost in translation, and the people
who are responsible, tend to forget to whom they’re ultimately
responsible to, to the people who elected them to their offices. They
were elected and they can be unelected just as easy. President Obama
made history when was the first black president to be elected., again he
made history by being reelected, what his final role in history will be
remains to be seen, and will not be fully understood for decades. Just
as all of our past presidents have been judged through the eyes of time
and history to be kinder than they were at the time. One can hope
history and time will be as kind to President Obama.
Looking
forward to the new year, which has already started. Once again find
many things to talk about. The advances in media in the last ten years
or so have far outstripped sixty plus years of media that came before
it. From the time in the 1950’s when color TV came on the scene and the
movie industry felt threatened, to the next generation of TV, being
cable and satellite, there really hasn’t been a fundamental change in
the content itself, it was essentially still the same as it was in the
1950’s plus or minus a few little tweaks, depending on your point of
view. Then the VCR came along, and that was the beginning of the changes
which are still happening. The movie industry soon embraced TV, as a
way to reuse a huge backlog of movie content that had stored and
monetize it and get it to still make them money, which they’re still
doing, only today on a grander scale. The VCR became the DVR, Digital
Video Recorder,, in which we still say we’re “taping” a show or a
movie, and there is no actual tape involved, it all ones and bytes. Of
course with the surge of good relatively cheap fast broadband internet
across the nation, sites, like Hulu came along, which allowed us to
stream content directly to our computers. while it wasn’t a perfect
world, the content still had ads, but it was a small price to pay to be
able to see free content, we wouldn’t be able to see in places we
wouldn't normally see it.
After
that, came Netflix, one price a month, and all the streaming you could
watch. Best part no commercials. It was the right product at the right
time. They were aggressive with the marketing, and making content deals
to get more content as they went along, as they were doing that, they
also perused the hardware side, making deals to get their software in as
many types of consumer products as possible, making it easier for the
consumer to watch the content they paid for and as many platforms as
possible. Since then many other players have jumped into the video
streaming pool. It has become somewhat crowded. Amazon has their own
streaming service, Amazon Prime, for a flat rate you get to stream a
large catalog of material, however, having used it, I have to give it
mixed reviews.
To aid in the distribution of all of this video content online a
number of set top boxes have come out. The best of theses is the Roku,
its cheap their cheapest box is about 50. dollars, and their most
expensive is 100.00. Theres no fee for using it. Only if you are using
Netflix or other pay service, which you're paying for anyways. The best
part is all of the free channels they have available .
At present they have several hundred channels which you can add, 99% of
them are free, The ones that require a fee are relatively cheap. As
for subject manor, that ranges from many niche subjects such as
specialized cooking to various forms of tech , to a wide range of music
channels to stream almost any taste in music to you tv, and sound
system, If one is is looking for a good way to supplant their cable or
in a few cases eliminate it completely the Roku Box is a good candidate.
The discussions in Washington, about both technology, and gun
control, and health care, are important and far reaching. The right of a
citizen to defend themselves is paramount in the minds of many people.
While I am deeply saddened by the shooting that happened last year,
particularly the school shooting. I refuse to give up my right to defend
myself and my family and anyone else who is in danger at a given time.
As for limiting rounds in magazines that is just a first step to
working to take our guns away completely, If we give in to that, we’re
saying ok, fine you have my constitutional right, even if it only a
round in my magazine at a time, I’ll remind you of it when I need it
and I’m a round short to stop the situation and people get dead because
I couldn’t have the capacity magazine I needed to stop the bad guy and
he killed more people.
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Monday, September 17, 2012
The Long Rough Road to "TV Everywhere"
The idea of “TV Everywhere” has been taking hold over the last year or so. While more and more providers are beginning to embrace the idea of making their content available on a number of platforms. There are still a few problems to be solved.
One major stumbling block is the national broadband rollout. As with all government projects things take longer than planned;
http://www.multichannel.com/article/488723-FCC_Broadband_Deployment_Still_Not_Timely_Reasonable.php
In order to bring the concept of “TV Everywhere” into a reality as it has been hyped, much needs to be done on the back end with infrastructure both for wired networking, ie; DSL, Cable, and Google’s Fiber to the home, and other land lines, along with wireless networking, both in 3g, and 4g also known as LTE. On that front much needs to be done. Consumers need simple to understand and use data plans, and devices that can handle whatever network they happen to be on. Right now the wireless market is fragmented , each provider has their own ideas for data plans. As with text messaging, a few years ago they charged per text, both incoming and outgoing, now they have evolved to a” all you can eat “ bundled with your regular plan. I suspect that they’re still making money on the texting plans, although they’ll never say it.
Now data is a whole another matter. The wireless companies, ie; Verizon, AT&T and other have been trying to move consumers up from either a feature or basic phone to a “Smart Phone” now for about a year. Anyone who has a smartphone, either Apples, or a Android, loves it. What they generally don’t love is the extra data package that have to pay for every month to make the thing work the way its supposed to.Which is tolerable if you only have one phone. What if you and your wife/husband both want a Smartphone? Then want to charge you a separate data plan for each phone. At a minimum of 30.00 each thats 60.00 on top of the rest to the bill. Verizon has announced their “Share Everything” Plan which sounds good, and for some folks it might fit, although the concept is good, they need to refine it some more.
http://solutions.vzwshop.com/shareeverything/?cmp=KNC-58100000004897908
The charges per month to add a device varies, however, I did find a page which list the charges for the different devices, the smartphone being the most expensive.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/plan-information/?page=share-everything
You can read the pricing structure at the link above. To my way of looking at it its backwards. Devices like a tablet are far more likely to use more data out the the data pool then the phones, even smartphones. The ability to use a device as a mobile hotspot will also increase data usage.
In short the confusion in the wireless sector is helping to keep “TV Everywhere” from getting the traction it needs in the wireless sector.
Other aspects that are slowing “TV Everywhere” is the way content owners and providers are handling the media they own or control. Simply put ; greed and control. While Netflix is famous for their breakthrough in bringing streaming content to the masses. Which they’re doing a good job at minus a couple of setbacks last summer, when they tried separating the streaming side from the DVD rental side,they created a huge backlash which they’re just getting over.
Now they’re looking to expand into other markets; ie other countries. All of which cost money. They have to pay license fees for all of the content they stream. The content owners have been requiring ridiculous amounts of money from streaming services like Netflix, and Amazon to allow them to stream their content. Often these deal have very tight limitations which can limit availability for other markets, or time frames.
Content owners need to balance the need for money with the idea of making their content available to a number of vendors.
Venders such as Netflix and Amazon are caught between trying to make their prices affordable for consumers, and making enough to cover the cost, most of which are licensing fees.
On the consumer side, it can be confusing. There are so many different places to get content. Some have the same material as the others.
There are at least 6 streaming services out there. Which one is right for you depends on what platforms you want to use, and what type of content you are looking for.
Here is a article that compare 6 streaming services;
6 Streaming Services Compared
This will give you a general idea of what's out there.
As to adding a set top box to use to stream your content to your tv, There are several; Appletv, Roku, are the top two, along with Boxee , and several lesser known streaming Set top boxes. Which one you choose depends on what you want to stream. Roku offers the best value for the money to me. The XS model will stream 1080 and has a usb plug on it allowing you to plug in a usb drive and play content directly off your usb drive to the tv. The selection of channels in increasing at a steady rate. You can find a wide variety of niche content channels that specialize in content that traditional media wouldn’t touch either because its too narrow of audience, or they won’t make enough money from it to justify a investment.
The adaptation of mobile devices by consumers to consume their media has driven content owners to rethink how they distribute and monetize their media. This is one area that is still fragmented and likely will remain so for some time as content owners figure out how to track viewership and make deals that are fair to everyone.
The road to “TV Everywhere” is still young. While great strides have been made, particularly on the OTT side, much needs to be done on the mobile side. Along with more equitable content licensing deals for venders.
The consumer is demanding more ease of use and the ability to take their content from one device to another without missing a frame. While in place and in some cases work very well, there is little cross-platform compatibility , which needs to happen to make “TV Everywhere” work.
In the end, there is still a long rough road to truly make the idealized concept of “TV Everywhere” work.
One major stumbling block is the national broadband rollout. As with all government projects things take longer than planned;
http://www.multichannel.com/article/488723-FCC_Broadband_Deployment_Still_Not_Timely_Reasonable.php
In order to bring the concept of “TV Everywhere” into a reality as it has been hyped, much needs to be done on the back end with infrastructure both for wired networking, ie; DSL, Cable, and Google’s Fiber to the home, and other land lines, along with wireless networking, both in 3g, and 4g also known as LTE. On that front much needs to be done. Consumers need simple to understand and use data plans, and devices that can handle whatever network they happen to be on. Right now the wireless market is fragmented , each provider has their own ideas for data plans. As with text messaging, a few years ago they charged per text, both incoming and outgoing, now they have evolved to a” all you can eat “ bundled with your regular plan. I suspect that they’re still making money on the texting plans, although they’ll never say it.
Now data is a whole another matter. The wireless companies, ie; Verizon, AT&T and other have been trying to move consumers up from either a feature or basic phone to a “Smart Phone” now for about a year. Anyone who has a smartphone, either Apples, or a Android, loves it. What they generally don’t love is the extra data package that have to pay for every month to make the thing work the way its supposed to.Which is tolerable if you only have one phone. What if you and your wife/husband both want a Smartphone? Then want to charge you a separate data plan for each phone. At a minimum of 30.00 each thats 60.00 on top of the rest to the bill. Verizon has announced their “Share Everything” Plan which sounds good, and for some folks it might fit, although the concept is good, they need to refine it some more.
http://solutions.vzwshop.com/shareeverything/?cmp=KNC-58100000004897908
The charges per month to add a device varies, however, I did find a page which list the charges for the different devices, the smartphone being the most expensive.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/plan-information/?page=share-everything
You can read the pricing structure at the link above. To my way of looking at it its backwards. Devices like a tablet are far more likely to use more data out the the data pool then the phones, even smartphones. The ability to use a device as a mobile hotspot will also increase data usage.
In short the confusion in the wireless sector is helping to keep “TV Everywhere” from getting the traction it needs in the wireless sector.
Other aspects that are slowing “TV Everywhere” is the way content owners and providers are handling the media they own or control. Simply put ; greed and control. While Netflix is famous for their breakthrough in bringing streaming content to the masses. Which they’re doing a good job at minus a couple of setbacks last summer, when they tried separating the streaming side from the DVD rental side,they created a huge backlash which they’re just getting over.
Now they’re looking to expand into other markets; ie other countries. All of which cost money. They have to pay license fees for all of the content they stream. The content owners have been requiring ridiculous amounts of money from streaming services like Netflix, and Amazon to allow them to stream their content. Often these deal have very tight limitations which can limit availability for other markets, or time frames.
Content owners need to balance the need for money with the idea of making their content available to a number of vendors.
Venders such as Netflix and Amazon are caught between trying to make their prices affordable for consumers, and making enough to cover the cost, most of which are licensing fees.
On the consumer side, it can be confusing. There are so many different places to get content. Some have the same material as the others.
There are at least 6 streaming services out there. Which one is right for you depends on what platforms you want to use, and what type of content you are looking for.
Here is a article that compare 6 streaming services;
6 Streaming Services Compared
This will give you a general idea of what's out there.
As to adding a set top box to use to stream your content to your tv, There are several; Appletv, Roku, are the top two, along with Boxee , and several lesser known streaming Set top boxes. Which one you choose depends on what you want to stream. Roku offers the best value for the money to me. The XS model will stream 1080 and has a usb plug on it allowing you to plug in a usb drive and play content directly off your usb drive to the tv. The selection of channels in increasing at a steady rate. You can find a wide variety of niche content channels that specialize in content that traditional media wouldn’t touch either because its too narrow of audience, or they won’t make enough money from it to justify a investment.
The adaptation of mobile devices by consumers to consume their media has driven content owners to rethink how they distribute and monetize their media. This is one area that is still fragmented and likely will remain so for some time as content owners figure out how to track viewership and make deals that are fair to everyone.
The road to “TV Everywhere” is still young. While great strides have been made, particularly on the OTT side, much needs to be done on the mobile side. Along with more equitable content licensing deals for venders.
The consumer is demanding more ease of use and the ability to take their content from one device to another without missing a frame. While in place and in some cases work very well, there is little cross-platform compatibility , which needs to happen to make “TV Everywhere” work.
In the end, there is still a long rough road to truly make the idealized concept of “TV Everywhere” work.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Consumers Embrace Media Choice, Industry Fears It
The tale of woe continues for the broadcast industry . This last week’s light reading included articles about cable rating drop offs. 11 of the 15 top cable networks have lost audience this year. The article could give no clear reasons why the sudden loss of audience. There are a number of factors at work here. The first in my opinion being price. The price has continued to go up for all involved with the industry. from content producers, to distributors and finally vendors, such as Netflix and Amazon who are constantly being asked for more money every year. In the broadcast world retransmission rights are the big deal breakers, along with sports franchise, brokering deals worth billions of dollars that will eventually have to be paid for by both the sports fans, and the non sports fan alike. in the final analysis the one paying for all of the “deals” and retransmission fees that are being charged back and forth between the local and national broadcaster such as Dish Network, and other cable companies will be passed to the consumer either directly in the form of higher bills, or add-on charges for services.
On the other side is the changing habits of viewers. No longer are they tied to the couch for 3-4 hours every evening guided by a set schedule. With the advent of the VCR and now the DVR consumers can now timeshift whatever they want and watch it whenever they want. and skip cominicals. Networks and content produces have just begun to learn how to embrace timeshifting, and figured out metrics to count what watched on the DVR in the total rating game. Now they have to contend with many new forms of competition for viewers eyes. With the advent of game systems that get online and allow consumers to stream content, granted a very limited amount of content, and just plain hooking a computer to the tv, which is ridiculously easy theses days. the whole world of internet content is suddenly available to the big screen in the living room. Now there is a wide range of ways to bring content into the tv, though various set-top boxes ranging from Blue-ray players, to the PS3, Xbox360, and the Roku, and Boxee, and, and other lesser know OTT boxes the open up a limited amount of content from the web to be streamed directly to the tv at the consumer’s convenience. Now there is no more “must See” tv. Its now I’ll see it when I get around to it” On whatever platform is handy. It's also possible to switch platforms mid viewing, going from one platform say the big tv, in the living room, and finishing watching the content on the Ipad, or other mobile device, thus freeing up the consumer to take their content as they like it.
A very recent article was just released with some very interesting statistic about the change in the numbers of households with connected tv, and the devices that connected to the tvs and what makes a tv a connected tv.
It can be read here;
http://www.leichtmanresearch.com/press/040912release.html
On the broad stroke, 38% of all households have at least one tv hooked to the internet via a video game system, Roku, or other OTT device, up from 30% last Year and 24% 2 years ago. The are a host of other very interesting statics in the article. The bottom line, to me, consumer are embracing OTT platforms and the offering they have. I don’t think traditional tv is anywhere near dead, and has many more years to go., If it is to continue to evolve and be open-minded about that way it handles its content deals. Retransmission deals and sports deals need to regulated preferably by the industry itself If they can’t keep the numbers down to reasonable rates, then the FCC and possibly the FTC needs to step in and set up new guidelines if not rules about the amounts that can be charges in theses deals.
One of many questions is what are media distributors, and content producers going to do about the changes in the ways that consumers are using their media.
Some are already embracing the shifts in available venues. Such as HBO, they are continuing to open up their “HBO to Go” Concept to work with more devices.
Comcast has been slowly opening it walled garden to allow more networks to be viewed on more devices. All of theses players need to compete with Netflix, amazon, and other OTT players who have been reaching to other means to get content in the face of rising bill for traditional cable/sat venues. Particularly if one does not need sports, or 10 channels of news and shopping . If one is not paying for the extra movie packages, ala, HBO, Showtime, etc, then the OTT venues start looking better and better.
Last Week, Netflix posted Q1 numbers. They showed that they are back to growth, although much slower. You can read the whole article herehttp://www.videonuze.com/article/netflix-q1-results-back-to-growth-albeit-much-slower
The main point which I commented on is that they did make some mistakes last summer which they’re paying for. The Achilles heel of all of this, is the content owners who have routinely demanded more and more in licence fees, Thus leaving Netflix and its fellow players between a rock and a hard place in keeping prices down for consumers and still paying licenses and operation expenses.
The consumer is demanding more choices about what content is available, and on what platforms. One may wonder if content producers and distributors actually watch the content they produce or distribute. If they used the many options available today they would be embracing ways to make deals work for all parties. Instead of making its almost impossible for for places like Netflix and Amazon to do a decent deal that's fair to both. In the end it's the consumer that pays the price in one way or another.
On the other side is the changing habits of viewers. No longer are they tied to the couch for 3-4 hours every evening guided by a set schedule. With the advent of the VCR and now the DVR consumers can now timeshift whatever they want and watch it whenever they want. and skip cominicals. Networks and content produces have just begun to learn how to embrace timeshifting, and figured out metrics to count what watched on the DVR in the total rating game. Now they have to contend with many new forms of competition for viewers eyes. With the advent of game systems that get online and allow consumers to stream content, granted a very limited amount of content, and just plain hooking a computer to the tv, which is ridiculously easy theses days. the whole world of internet content is suddenly available to the big screen in the living room. Now there is a wide range of ways to bring content into the tv, though various set-top boxes ranging from Blue-ray players, to the PS3, Xbox360, and the Roku, and Boxee, and, and other lesser know OTT boxes the open up a limited amount of content from the web to be streamed directly to the tv at the consumer’s convenience. Now there is no more “must See” tv. Its now I’ll see it when I get around to it” On whatever platform is handy. It's also possible to switch platforms mid viewing, going from one platform say the big tv, in the living room, and finishing watching the content on the Ipad, or other mobile device, thus freeing up the consumer to take their content as they like it.
A very recent article was just released with some very interesting statistic about the change in the numbers of households with connected tv, and the devices that connected to the tvs and what makes a tv a connected tv.
It can be read here;
http://www.leichtmanresearch.com/press/040912release.html
On the broad stroke, 38% of all households have at least one tv hooked to the internet via a video game system, Roku, or other OTT device, up from 30% last Year and 24% 2 years ago. The are a host of other very interesting statics in the article. The bottom line, to me, consumer are embracing OTT platforms and the offering they have. I don’t think traditional tv is anywhere near dead, and has many more years to go., If it is to continue to evolve and be open-minded about that way it handles its content deals. Retransmission deals and sports deals need to regulated preferably by the industry itself If they can’t keep the numbers down to reasonable rates, then the FCC and possibly the FTC needs to step in and set up new guidelines if not rules about the amounts that can be charges in theses deals.
One of many questions is what are media distributors, and content producers going to do about the changes in the ways that consumers are using their media.
Some are already embracing the shifts in available venues. Such as HBO, they are continuing to open up their “HBO to Go” Concept to work with more devices.
Comcast has been slowly opening it walled garden to allow more networks to be viewed on more devices. All of theses players need to compete with Netflix, amazon, and other OTT players who have been reaching to other means to get content in the face of rising bill for traditional cable/sat venues. Particularly if one does not need sports, or 10 channels of news and shopping . If one is not paying for the extra movie packages, ala, HBO, Showtime, etc, then the OTT venues start looking better and better.
Last Week, Netflix posted Q1 numbers. They showed that they are back to growth, although much slower. You can read the whole article herehttp://www.videonuze.com/article/netflix-q1-results-back-to-growth-albeit-much-slower
The main point which I commented on is that they did make some mistakes last summer which they’re paying for. The Achilles heel of all of this, is the content owners who have routinely demanded more and more in licence fees, Thus leaving Netflix and its fellow players between a rock and a hard place in keeping prices down for consumers and still paying licenses and operation expenses.
The consumer is demanding more choices about what content is available, and on what platforms. One may wonder if content producers and distributors actually watch the content they produce or distribute. If they used the many options available today they would be embracing ways to make deals work for all parties. Instead of making its almost impossible for for places like Netflix and Amazon to do a decent deal that's fair to both. In the end it's the consumer that pays the price in one way or another.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Redefining Publish Or Parish In The Electric Age
The continuing quandary the publishing busness finds itself in as it struggles to adjust to new pricing and more importantly, new methods of distribution is life threatening . While the traditional paper books aren’t going anywhere very soon, it is having lots of company. The new kids on the block aren't all so new. Audio books have been around for many years, Only they were books on tape, and they weren't marketed to the general public. In the early1950's the first audio book was made, only then they were put on records. and played on a turntable. In the 1970's they advanced to the cassette. The first of the recording were made available to the blind, by the Library of Congress. I knew about them generally because I have a step-grandmother who is blind, and I had seen them, along with her brail books. In the late 1970's they advanced to CD, along with all other forms of music and audio in general.. It was then the phenomenon began to take off with the general public. Fast forward to today; Today, every form of audio recording is done digitally. The audio book has become a viable industry of its own. The largest publisher of audio books Audio.com boasts approximately 75,000 titles in a wide range to topics and authors. The downloaded digital books can be played on a wide varity of devices ranging from a traditional MP3 player, to a phone such as an Iphone, and any number of smart phones, and devices such as the IPad. The portability allows one to listen to a book when and where reading a traditional paper book would not be possible. This alternative to a paper book has found a new life and is giving life to many books that would remain unread because the folks who want to read them can't or won't sit still long enough to read a paper book. The audio book has its own history which many people will never know of, and probably care even less about..
The growth of non-traditional book formats has exploded. Any format that is not paper is what I would call a non-traditional format. Another what I'd call Non-Traditional format is e-books, or e-publishing, as its called in some circles. This too, has been around for a while.
The e-book goes back to the early 1970's wen the fist ebook was produced on a IBM mainframe computer, to the Internet where specialty and hard to find books were essentially PDF of books that popped up on the screen. Even until recently the last 10 years or so they were a novelity and ralerly seen and even more rarely used by the general public. The publishing industry was terrfified of the concept of the e-book and e-ink.
In the last 10 years or so, e-books have come into their own with the development of readers such as the Kindle from Amazon and other makers of readers the idea of buying an e-book and downloading it and carrying around several large volumes of books in one small flat screen has exploded.
Traditionally, publishers had treated e-books in much the same ways as they had traditional paper books. That is until now. Amazon had made a huge market by selling their own device to read e-books, the Kindle. Once you had the Kindle it was easy to buy books from Amazon directly from the kindle, so you just used your Kindle and were happy to read.. Then along comes Apple..
Apple comes along first upsetting the status quo of the music industry and in the process reinventing it, and in many ways saving it from itself.
Now its looking to do the same for the book publishing industry. With the much hyped release of the IPad, earlier thsis spring, and as part of the Ipad scheme is the IBook store to sell ebooks . The ebook on a Ipad is a entirely different experince then on a Kindle. On the Kindle ones is limited to "black and white" ie, plain text on a white background, with no color pictures, maybe some illustrations. While very usable, it is limited in many ways. On the IPad, one is treated to a bright colorful screen that can do much more then just show e-books. The experince of reading a ebook is completly different, turning a page is much faster and eaier, The pictures are beautiful color and nore book-like then a kindle ever thought of.
One of the thing many things Apple has done is to upset the price structure that had been at Amazon. Where Amazon set the price and the percentage that the publishers and authors get, Apple came in and said they would sell their Ibooks as they call them for exactly the same as Amazon, thus eliminating whatever advantage Amazon had over Apple. It should be noted that Amazon has a Kindle app for the IPad that apparently works very well, It even lets you sync your books between the Kindle and the IPad, and go back and forth between them, picking up where you left off on one device from the other. This is good. Barnes and Noble just released a ap for the IPad for their e-book reader the nook,
There are bigger issues here then price and and who is the price leader, and even how much who gets.
What the Ipad and other tablets do is open up the possibilities of what an e-book reader could be. No longer limited to displying e-ink in basic black & white and presenting limited pictures or drawing. It can now display full color. The addition of a full color screen and native web integration between the e-magazines and the web opens up a world of possibilities for content developers . The introduction of tablets running other os, ie, android, HP's webos, and even Linux bring a whole range of choices for the consumers, that is if they are produced and consumers will use them. I suspect that for the near future, even after other tablets are on the market, there will be Apple and everyone else.
I don't think books are going anywhere any time soon, but their relevealance to today’s generation is not the same as it ws to ours and our parents; they don't hold them in the respect that they were once held,, The same could be said for other physical media, LP, tapes. now, cd. and dvds. We have a whole generation of people who only think of content as bits and bytes they can store on a hard drive and watch on whatever they can plug it into. The idea of having a room filled with books is disappearing fast. This is one of the problems that the publishing industry need to address.
One way to encourage book sales is to give the buyer a incentive to buy a hard cover book instead of going and just buying a digital copy, be it either e-book, or audio. That is to allow him to have the book and listen to it at the same time. Towards the end of proping up book sales I have the following idea;
My idea is that of a cross promotion of media types; mainly books to e-books and audio books. Include a special code for a audio book from audio.com to allow the buyer of the HB book to download the audio version free.
In limited runs of paper books, to start with; probably hard cover books; Include a special code for a audio book from audio.com to allow the buyer of the HB book to download the audio version free.
The code would be specific to that run of books and would let them know that it come from the book. There would be extra content along with the book, specific to the code. In other words if one used another code they would get the regualr audio version of the book, without the extras, thus justifiy the extra cost of the hard cover book, and give the consumer a value ad for buying a hard cover book. instead of just the ebook, or audio book. The same deal cold also be arranged for ebooks from Amamzon, they could get either the ebook with extras, or the audio book with extras.
Also none of the books would have the same number or code so the same code couldn't be resused several times, it would be checked against a datase to tell where the book was sold and when, allowing tracking of how many codes where used, and on what, ebook or audio etc.. and what part of country etc...like the promo code tv shows use to tell how many people respond to their ads..
As for Amazon and Audio, they would be paid a fee by the publishers for every code redeemed like coupons are now, and Authors would get royalties from the original book sales, with a bonus from the publisher for every code redeemed, granted not as much as if the electronic book had been bought, but some... The idea that the publishers and others would make up money on volume and not per unit,, and the the addition of having the electronic version out where people are going to see and talk about it and how they got are essentially free advertising, promotion for the books, they would never get if they just sold the paper book and it just sat on a shelve at home..
This a idea to help get the publishing industry to rethink how they look at books and content in general. They are not just publishing a book to publish a book, they are publishing intellectual material, and not just paper books and magazines.
They are publishing ideas and which more important the how much they make in the traditional way, Hard Cover Books, and paperbacks, which will always sell, or getting the ideas out where it can be seen and talked about, the way to do that is to make the same material available in all formats. and make it easy to use the content on any platform, and move between the platforms.
Theses are just some ideas for bridging the gap between traditional publishing and the new forms of publishing and medias,,
All of the media industries are wrestling with the same issues, how to get their media out and still keep control. and make money. As for control, If one looks at the music industry, they find that DRM dose not work. It only makes it hard for honest consumers to use the media, and and only slows the serious pirarites down, slightly, so its not worth it. The movie indusrty also has yet to learn this. The best thing the publishing indursty can do is open it up so any ebook will play on any ereader, and be transfereable, the same with audio books, Publicity is their best friend. seing people reading and listing to books out and about is the best advertisement there is. People talking about what their reading is what they need, not people talking about how they can't read something because its locked down.
Well, there are probably many aspects that I didn't discuss . If you jave any thoughts on this please feel free to email or leave a comment.
Ken Lawson
The growth of non-traditional book formats has exploded. Any format that is not paper is what I would call a non-traditional format. Another what I'd call Non-Traditional format is e-books, or e-publishing, as its called in some circles. This too, has been around for a while.
The e-book goes back to the early 1970's wen the fist ebook was produced on a IBM mainframe computer, to the Internet where specialty and hard to find books were essentially PDF of books that popped up on the screen. Even until recently the last 10 years or so they were a novelity and ralerly seen and even more rarely used by the general public. The publishing industry was terrfified of the concept of the e-book and e-ink.
In the last 10 years or so, e-books have come into their own with the development of readers such as the Kindle from Amazon and other makers of readers the idea of buying an e-book and downloading it and carrying around several large volumes of books in one small flat screen has exploded.
Traditionally, publishers had treated e-books in much the same ways as they had traditional paper books. That is until now. Amazon had made a huge market by selling their own device to read e-books, the Kindle. Once you had the Kindle it was easy to buy books from Amazon directly from the kindle, so you just used your Kindle and were happy to read.. Then along comes Apple..
Apple comes along first upsetting the status quo of the music industry and in the process reinventing it, and in many ways saving it from itself.
Now its looking to do the same for the book publishing industry. With the much hyped release of the IPad, earlier thsis spring, and as part of the Ipad scheme is the IBook store to sell ebooks . The ebook on a Ipad is a entirely different experince then on a Kindle. On the Kindle ones is limited to "black and white" ie, plain text on a white background, with no color pictures, maybe some illustrations. While very usable, it is limited in many ways. On the IPad, one is treated to a bright colorful screen that can do much more then just show e-books. The experince of reading a ebook is completly different, turning a page is much faster and eaier, The pictures are beautiful color and nore book-like then a kindle ever thought of.
One of the thing many things Apple has done is to upset the price structure that had been at Amazon. Where Amazon set the price and the percentage that the publishers and authors get, Apple came in and said they would sell their Ibooks as they call them for exactly the same as Amazon, thus eliminating whatever advantage Amazon had over Apple. It should be noted that Amazon has a Kindle app for the IPad that apparently works very well, It even lets you sync your books between the Kindle and the IPad, and go back and forth between them, picking up where you left off on one device from the other. This is good. Barnes and Noble just released a ap for the IPad for their e-book reader the nook,
There are bigger issues here then price and and who is the price leader, and even how much who gets.
What the Ipad and other tablets do is open up the possibilities of what an e-book reader could be. No longer limited to displying e-ink in basic black & white and presenting limited pictures or drawing. It can now display full color. The addition of a full color screen and native web integration between the e-magazines and the web opens up a world of possibilities for content developers . The introduction of tablets running other os, ie, android, HP's webos, and even Linux bring a whole range of choices for the consumers, that is if they are produced and consumers will use them. I suspect that for the near future, even after other tablets are on the market, there will be Apple and everyone else.
I don't think books are going anywhere any time soon, but their relevealance to today’s generation is not the same as it ws to ours and our parents; they don't hold them in the respect that they were once held,, The same could be said for other physical media, LP, tapes. now, cd. and dvds. We have a whole generation of people who only think of content as bits and bytes they can store on a hard drive and watch on whatever they can plug it into. The idea of having a room filled with books is disappearing fast. This is one of the problems that the publishing industry need to address.
One way to encourage book sales is to give the buyer a incentive to buy a hard cover book instead of going and just buying a digital copy, be it either e-book, or audio. That is to allow him to have the book and listen to it at the same time. Towards the end of proping up book sales I have the following idea;
My idea is that of a cross promotion of media types; mainly books to e-books and audio books. Include a special code for a audio book from audio.com to allow the buyer of the HB book to download the audio version free.
In limited runs of paper books, to start with; probably hard cover books; Include a special code for a audio book from audio.com to allow the buyer of the HB book to download the audio version free.
The code would be specific to that run of books and would let them know that it come from the book. There would be extra content along with the book, specific to the code. In other words if one used another code they would get the regualr audio version of the book, without the extras, thus justifiy the extra cost of the hard cover book, and give the consumer a value ad for buying a hard cover book. instead of just the ebook, or audio book. The same deal cold also be arranged for ebooks from Amamzon, they could get either the ebook with extras, or the audio book with extras.
Also none of the books would have the same number or code so the same code couldn't be resused several times, it would be checked against a datase to tell where the book was sold and when, allowing tracking of how many codes where used, and on what, ebook or audio etc.. and what part of country etc...like the promo code tv shows use to tell how many people respond to their ads..
As for Amazon and Audio, they would be paid a fee by the publishers for every code redeemed like coupons are now, and Authors would get royalties from the original book sales, with a bonus from the publisher for every code redeemed, granted not as much as if the electronic book had been bought, but some... The idea that the publishers and others would make up money on volume and not per unit,, and the the addition of having the electronic version out where people are going to see and talk about it and how they got are essentially free advertising, promotion for the books, they would never get if they just sold the paper book and it just sat on a shelve at home..
This a idea to help get the publishing industry to rethink how they look at books and content in general. They are not just publishing a book to publish a book, they are publishing intellectual material, and not just paper books and magazines.
They are publishing ideas and which more important the how much they make in the traditional way, Hard Cover Books, and paperbacks, which will always sell, or getting the ideas out where it can be seen and talked about, the way to do that is to make the same material available in all formats. and make it easy to use the content on any platform, and move between the platforms.
Theses are just some ideas for bridging the gap between traditional publishing and the new forms of publishing and medias,,
All of the media industries are wrestling with the same issues, how to get their media out and still keep control. and make money. As for control, If one looks at the music industry, they find that DRM dose not work. It only makes it hard for honest consumers to use the media, and and only slows the serious pirarites down, slightly, so its not worth it. The movie indusrty also has yet to learn this. The best thing the publishing indursty can do is open it up so any ebook will play on any ereader, and be transfereable, the same with audio books, Publicity is their best friend. seing people reading and listing to books out and about is the best advertisement there is. People talking about what their reading is what they need, not people talking about how they can't read something because its locked down.
Well, there are probably many aspects that I didn't discuss . If you jave any thoughts on this please feel free to email or leave a comment.
Ken Lawson
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Summer Of Apple..?
Christmas-Like excitement abounds with the the imitate release of Apples IPad. Scheduled to hit stores April 3rd.
Never has there been so much written and talked about, about a product that only announced, and not yet released.
The Apple IPad will either be a huge success and a huge flop. My feeling is that once its out and people can touch it and use it, and word get around how amazing it is to use, it will find more believers. Over the last month I have read numerous articles touting its future uses in a variety of business applications, both corporate and small business. The major ap developers are rushing to get new versions of their aps out in time for the release on April 3rd. So far, all of this is being done with the SDK that Apple put out when the announced the IPad. So they are developing for a product they haven't even touched yet.. Once its out and the aps can be tried on a real product the real fun begins.
The idea of a tablet pc has been tried before several times. Each time it died a slow painful death, and generally faded off the market into tech history. Theres has been some limited success with tablet pc, in specialized situations, it has not done well with the general public.
The recent success of the Apple Iphone, Ipod Touch, and more recently the Google Android series of Phones has shown that there is a market for tablet devices, if done well. The major lesson being you can't just stick a regular PC desktop OS into a tablet and add touch, and handwriting recognition and call it done. It won't work, its not intuitively and easily, its clunky and a pain to use in a hurry to take notes, or other uses where one would want quick access to information, or to add information quickly. This is where the Iphone and its little brother the Ipod Touch come in, They are easy to use, and get information from, and in many cases easy to get it into.
Apple has taken on a new venue with the IPad, that of the ebook reader. For many years the ebook market has been limited to Amazons Kindle product line, and more recently Barnes & Nobles offering the Noook ebook reader. Both of which use a plain text format limiting it to pretty much just text and no pictures. While it works well, its not breaking any new ground. Then Apple comes along with the IPad, and introduces the IBook store and wakes up the publishing industry and upsetting the price structure that Amazon had set up for the ebooks they sold. That's not even discussing the whole color and multimedia formats that the Ipad is able to bring into play.The idea of publishers and writers being able to produce not only a written book, but a multi media experience to complement it is huge. magazines being able to play videos of subjects of the articles, or related to the articles Nativity in the player, and adding links to supporting content and other ways to enhance the ebook experience are astounding. Again Apple has possibility changed a entire market, as it did with music, and video and Itunes. At this point its only guessing, but given Apple past track record for redefining markets, and in some cases creating markets, its a pretty safe bet.
As I asked in the last article ; "Is the Apple IPad a game changer?" Very soon we will begin to know the answer.. This will be the summer of Apple. Possibly Apple's biggest summer in recent years.
Never has there been so much written and talked about, about a product that only announced, and not yet released.
The Apple IPad will either be a huge success and a huge flop. My feeling is that once its out and people can touch it and use it, and word get around how amazing it is to use, it will find more believers. Over the last month I have read numerous articles touting its future uses in a variety of business applications, both corporate and small business. The major ap developers are rushing to get new versions of their aps out in time for the release on April 3rd. So far, all of this is being done with the SDK that Apple put out when the announced the IPad. So they are developing for a product they haven't even touched yet.. Once its out and the aps can be tried on a real product the real fun begins.
The idea of a tablet pc has been tried before several times. Each time it died a slow painful death, and generally faded off the market into tech history. Theres has been some limited success with tablet pc, in specialized situations, it has not done well with the general public.
The recent success of the Apple Iphone, Ipod Touch, and more recently the Google Android series of Phones has shown that there is a market for tablet devices, if done well. The major lesson being you can't just stick a regular PC desktop OS into a tablet and add touch, and handwriting recognition and call it done. It won't work, its not intuitively and easily, its clunky and a pain to use in a hurry to take notes, or other uses where one would want quick access to information, or to add information quickly. This is where the Iphone and its little brother the Ipod Touch come in, They are easy to use, and get information from, and in many cases easy to get it into.
Apple has taken on a new venue with the IPad, that of the ebook reader. For many years the ebook market has been limited to Amazons Kindle product line, and more recently Barnes & Nobles offering the Noook ebook reader. Both of which use a plain text format limiting it to pretty much just text and no pictures. While it works well, its not breaking any new ground. Then Apple comes along with the IPad, and introduces the IBook store and wakes up the publishing industry and upsetting the price structure that Amazon had set up for the ebooks they sold. That's not even discussing the whole color and multimedia formats that the Ipad is able to bring into play.The idea of publishers and writers being able to produce not only a written book, but a multi media experience to complement it is huge. magazines being able to play videos of subjects of the articles, or related to the articles Nativity in the player, and adding links to supporting content and other ways to enhance the ebook experience are astounding. Again Apple has possibility changed a entire market, as it did with music, and video and Itunes. At this point its only guessing, but given Apple past track record for redefining markets, and in some cases creating markets, its a pretty safe bet.
As I asked in the last article ; "Is the Apple IPad a game changer?" Very soon we will begin to know the answer.. This will be the summer of Apple. Possibly Apple's biggest summer in recent years.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Apple's IPad: The Shape of Things To Come?
Wednesday was a big day in the tech world, particularly, if you’re into Apple. After months of speculation, guessing posturing, and predicting by pundits and everyone else the Questions were finely answered.
Its called the Apple IPad. What it is essentially is a scaled up version of the hugely popular Apple Ipod Touch media player. Which means it syncs with your apple I-Tunes and can play music, videos and run all of the applications that you can run on a I-touch or I Phone now. This gives it a huge leg up on most new products. Using it is the same as using the I touch.
While Apple did not invent the MP3 player, and the Smart Phone, they did set the standard by which all others are judged in those lines. The same goes for Portable Media Players. While Apple didn't invent the Portable Media player they just may have set the stranded.. again..
Obliviously, its way too early to tell for sure. as they have just announced it today, and they won't ship for 60 days . But the bigger questions will take a while to answer. They have been critiquing something that very few of them have really seen, much less actually held yet. So essentially what they are doing is guessing. Until it ships and get out to the public and they use it no one will completely know what the impact it will have.
With the ability to get models with 3G and a no contract option for buying 3G from AT&T it becomes a platfrom for use in situations where one probably wouldn't do Internet and letting you do things you couldn't do on your IPhone because the screen is too small.
But the bigger question is will the public buy into it? Will they use it like they do the IPhone, and Ipod models, particularly the I touch ?
The IPad has already been called the Kindle Killer. The ablilty to buy and download e-books and audio books and play them on here as well as music and video, and aps defiantly even the playing field. Will aps makers buy into it? How soon will aps written specify for the IPad, and how many aps will be ported up to the IPad, so they can work natively on the larger 9 inch screen, and other features of the IPad?
Theses are many of the questions that will be answered over the course of this spring and summer.
I followed the news of the Apple announcement not on the TV so much as it was covered and commented on on the big new stations, But on my laptop, watching live streaming coverage by a number of websites, and web news venues, cheifly My favorite, Leo Leporte and his gang at TWIT.TV. Leo was actually in the convention center and saw the Steve Jobs presentation and afterwards was able to go and see and play with the demo units they had set up for the press. They then did live discussions with many of the people who were there for quite a while before Leo headed home. All of this was streamed and shown live . I don't remember the exact number they had watching at one time but it was huge, 2-3 times more then they had figured on. This not the first time they have done live remote streaming of events. In fact they were at CES in Los Vegas earlier this month, for 4 days straight and streamed and did live overage, and did several of the regular TWIT network shows live from the CES floor. What he had done on a relatively small budget is bring as good in some cases better coverage of events like CES and The Apple doings today to an audience who care what is happening, and given them the news they wanted when they wanted it.
So this was a news day in several ways, while Leo was covering Apple, He was interviewed by a reporter from I believe it was Fox , which was streamed to us right along with everything else.
So now all of the pundits can stop guessing and betting on whats it got,, they can now guess about the future of the Apple IPad.
Ken Lawson
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