Aug
31
Kindle and competition
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Here’s an article from Slate on the Kindle and Sony: How To Beat the Kindle
There are good points about competition and openness. All of which I agree.
Here are some specific things to point out:
On the idea of competing on features – Compete on the user interface and the formatting of the content above all else. New users are reluctant to change and wary of learning new things. If you can make the interface intuitive, you’ll gain greater per hour usage. User-interfaces don’t win you initial sales, but they do make the consumer use the device more.
As far as the formatting, if you can make the experience as close to real-world as possible, you’ll re-create the experience of the physical world that people have come to know. Don’t make the consumer have to re-learn how to read a book.
On the idea of content – It’s not the reader that’s cool, it’s the content on it. Don’t use DRM or lock-up the content. We know that won’t work. The broader your content ecosystem extends, the more users you’ll win.
There is one thing with which I disagree. I don’t believe the ebook and music markets are similar. Sure, they are digital products, but that’s a product comparison, not a market comparison. The music market was (is) broken. There are all sorts of inefficiencies when it comes to pricing, distribution, and selection. The publishing industry doesn’t seem to be in the same condition.
Years ago, when I walked into a mainstrema record store, I was flooded with CDs all priced around 15$. When I go into a bookstore, I don’t have that problem. The markets aren’t the same. ( My comment isn’t about the price per se, but about the market forces that surround pricing. When the prices are all similar, someone isn’t paying attention to supply and demand. )
Good read.
Aug
31
Burning Man and the geeky extensions
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Burning Man starts today. This year, there are new additions to the line-up. All of them are decidely tech and brilliant.
There is an API for developers to access location information, an iPhone app for ease of navigation, and a use of Flickr to organize and catalogue pictures using tags. And of course there will be bazillions of Twitterers.
This is great. Offering an API isn’t new. Several web companies have been offering external APIs for third-party access. Software companies have been offering APIs for longer. To my knowledge, this is the first festival that has done it. I haven’t looked at the interface, but the major difference between the sets of APIs is the time variant.
Established companies have the luxury of providing time and tech assistance to 3rd parties who are using their APIs. In this scenerio, there will be people who only have a few days or weeks to create useful applicaitons.
Not only is this interesting from a geek’s perspectivev, this year festival is going to give us insight into the nature of coordination and self-organization within a community. This is not just a tech experiment, it’s a social one.
Be sure to watch this one.
Link: Burning Man Gets an API (and a Whole Lot More)
Aug
30
Apple’s iPhone app size
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Here’s Om’s commentary on the Appstore ecosystem. Good stuff.
How Big Is the Apple iPhone App Economy? The Answer Might Surprise You
Aug
30
I made a comment about a startup in Israel using crowdsourcing for their GPS map data. (Crowdsourcing and GPS maps)
Well, Google is using crowdsourcing also. As an experiment, I entered in severa local streets and then adjusted the display to show the traffic during very heavy times. It highlighted the areas that we locals all know to avoid. Very cool.
Links:
Arterial traffic available on Google Maps
The bright side of sitting in traffic: Crowdsourcing road congestion data
Aug
30
Advertising as economic growth
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And in other shocking news, consumers think that advertising contributes to economic growth and creates new jobs. Brilliant.
The sponsor of the research? The World Federation of Advertisers.
Link: Consumers Worldwide See Advertising as Key to Economic Growth
Aug
30
Google releases ebook format
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Google is using the open standards approach. It gives them less control, but the open approach accelerates adoption.
Link: Google Releases Books in Portable EPUB Format
Aug
30
Twitter’s growth not teen
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Information about the growth behind Twitter’s growth.
Link: NYT - Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens
The article makes some statements that are obviously wrong and misses the point entirely. First, it seems to suggest that teenagers are the ultimate ‘early-adopters’ of new technology. That’s patently false. DVDs? GPS? HDTV? Come on guys, there are plently of examples where teenagers don’t drive the adoption.
Secondly, the reason why Twitter hasn’t taken off with teens is not because of security or privacy concerns. What teenager makes a decision based on such logical (and adult-like) reasoning? The real reason is one of competition, not of adoption.
When new technology is released, it needs to fill a gap. The gap signals either a discontinuity in the current technology offering or it can be an entirely new service. Twitter was a new category to adults, but not to teenagers.
Why, you ask? Teenagers knew about SMS.
Teens have been texting for years. I recently had a conversation with a friend who was complaining about her 10-year-old niece texting her with nonsense. Every few minutes a text message would appear asking, “What are you doing now?” Clearly, the message wasn’t meant to annoy, but her niece want to be a part of the ‘teen club’ of texting.
When Twitter came along, it wasn’t a new service to them. It was a replacement to SMS (texting). So, the task of conquering the teenage market wasn’t one of adoption, but of competition with SMS. If you asked a teenager about Twitter (and I have), they’ll respond, “No, I just text instead.” In their mind, the two services were equivalent.
You may be arguing that Twitter and SMS are completely different beasts. Yes, they are. But they are close enough in the consumer’s mind that the difference doesn’t matter. It’s a ‘good enough’ type of argument. SMS is ‘good enough’ for me. Without some type of substantial value-add, the switching costs for teenagers over to Twitter is too high. They’ll need to sign-up for an account, they’ll need to follow their friends, they’ll need to update their phone, and they’ll need to update their contacts. That’s too much work for a service that isn’t substantially different from SMS in their minds.
Add in the network effects, the picture gets even bleaker. For Twitter to be of any value, a single teenager would need to convince all of her friends to join Twitter. All that seems like a drag when I’ve already got my phone ready to go.
Why have adults taken to Twitter? It’s the exact opposite argument. They weren’t heavily invested in SMS. For adults, it really was a game of adoption, not one of competition.
The real question people should be asking is why everyone is so fascinated with what everyone else is doing.
Aug
30
New Google Reader feature
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As someone who is constantly looking for new information, I welcome this feature from Google Reader:
Looking for great stuff to read?
Aug
30
Crowdsourcing and Hacking Encryption
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Karsten Nohl is launching an effort to enlist the crowd to break the encryption used on GSM phones.
Link: Cracking GSM phone crypto via distributed computing
The idea is interesting and likely to enrage the mobile carriers. There is software already available to crack the encryption algorithm, which you can be sure that the ‘underground’ already own. This is one way to raise the priority level of the carriers to have a look at the security algorithm.
Expect the carriers to respond in their typical way – Shock and awe that someone would question their priorities, followed by a roomful of lawyers sending out lawsuits.
Aug
30
From earlier post: http://geekfluence.com/article-about-craigslist
Here’s Fred Wilson’s comments. You should be reading his blog. He’s a smart guy.
