Going From Free to Pay

John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media Corp. which owns cable channels, satellite-television operator DirecTV and baseball’s Atlanta Braves, among other properties—and Liberty Global Inc., an international cable operator was recently was interviewed by Walt Mossberg for the Wall Street Journal.

When asked - how did you get people to pay for what was free TV? Malone responded, ‘ This was a huge fight that we had going back 30 years, 35 years. Everybody said television’s free, television’s free. We were blocked by federal regulation and law from offering television for a fee. That was a law change that allowed us to actually offer it.

The way it was successful was blending together the transport service with the charge for the content. When you were a cable subscriber, you weren’t sure whether you were paying for connectivity or whether you were paying for the content that was embodied in the connectivity.

You had broadcast television initially. Then you started out with distant broadcast. That’s where Ted Turner comes in. Distant broadcast television is brought into a market and added and a charge is increased. You want to get the superstation; it’s another dollar, right? Were people paying for connectivity or were they paying for content? Then, as that blurred environment continued to grow, along comes HBO and says you can watch non-commercially-interrupted movies, but now it’s optional. You don’t have to take it, but it’s another X dollars a month.

At that point, the concept of paying for some television was well enough established in the public’s mind that paying a little more for some premium television started to sell. Of course, that created the opportunity to add the CNNs and the Black Entertainment Televisions and the Discoveries and all of that. Every time we added a channel, we charged a little more. Some of the money went back to the producer of the content.
When the Internet came along, I was terribly concerned that here’s something that’s “for free.” People will pay for connectivity. The industry’s never made successfully the transition to higher-quality content or unique content delivered by the Internet you should pay for. That’s a big intellectual jump.

When asked - How having not charged for something, do you then all of a sudden turn around and charge them for it?

Malone responded, ‘ That’s really the challenge. You should be asking a psychologist. We did it by tying together something that people are perfectly used to paying for—connectivity, communication—with content. If you can introduce incrementally—now you’re getting this 4G wireless data service and, by the way, part of that are these three very interesting things that only work if you’ve got enough speed to enjoy them. Perhaps that’s a way that it can be introduced, just the intellectual concept of paying incrementally for content.

I suspect that it will evolve over time. People will pay on a per-view or on some kind of subscription basis for content on the Internet if the quality is there and there’s convenience. The question you have to ask yourself is, is there going to be an aggregator doing that? This is the role that HBO traditionally did in movies. They aggregated movies and they sold you in bulk. You got 30 movies a month for seven bucks when they started.

The cable industry would love to be the aggregator. Hulu would love to be the aggregator. There’ll be a real competition for that role in the future.

To read the full article 'Show Me The Money'

A Year is a Long Time in Today’s Technology World

We now see the inevitable division of content delivery focus, with Google going for the online reading route, others sticking to the offline reading route and Amazon probably trying to cover every conceivable option.

We are already in the device battles with eInk versus the rest. Mobiles versus ereaders and ereaders versus netbooks, laptops etc. We are just starting to see the app battles with Apple versus Andriod, versus Blackberry, versus Symbian versus Microsoft. What is certain is that whatever device you use today it will not be the device you will use, or want to use, in a couple of years.

So where would we place our bets today?

Will the ereaders survive as a one dimensional product, or will we look back fondly at them in a few years time as some quaint Delorean car, a great looking prototype that had to evolve. We hear lots about colour eInk but the demand is today not necessarily tomorrow. What is clear, is that we will see many more eink ‘lookie likies’ some merely rebadged, some exclusive, some heavily financed and some not. The price today is too high, the technology to restrictive and the concept of carrying a library around with you at all time ludicrous in the extreme. Only when we view this technology as throwaway and transient commodity will it change its appeal. This can happen as a result of adoption by a WalMart, Tesco etc or like MP3 it just becomes cheap commodity.

We also still have formats to sort out. Many may man the barricades and demand an epub world as others before them demanded an SGML or an OEB world. The truth is today the best format for most will remain the PDF in the Adobe eBook form, which contrary to popular urban myth works perfectly well on devices such as the Sony Reader. Many feared that reflow was essential and that epub gave us the answer, that the reality is now different. Don’t get us wrong we welcome epub, but it no longer is this issue as times move on.

Will DRM (Digital Rights Management) still be with us in say three years time and if so how will it work is another interesting challenge? We have seen only one aggregator switch to-date, but it gave us an insight to a potential risk. Technology may be replicable moving forward but the encrypted licences needed may be dependant on the original server or service being in place or under contract. Adobe have started to minimise this exposure but it still exists for many who have not opted for a neutral licence service. Watermarking has still to make its mark, but will it coexist with DRM, replace it, or be a nice to have?

We believe the biggest technology choice remains online versus offline. Google have clearly placed their bets online while may others scramble around trying to develop to perfect offline experience. There is no reason why eink should work with online. The issue is the mindset that says we have to own a library and we need to carry it around with us just in case we want to read another book! Is the book market the only one facing this question? We only need to look at Spotify and music, TV and the iPlayer and Hulu, games and even news and magazines. What and how we consume on the move is different to what and how we consume when not on the move. We access and use media and information differently according to the role we are playing at the time and what we want from it and yet we appear to be wanting to shoehorn a one size fits all technology approach into the market.

The one thing that is certain about tomorrow is that it will be different to today.

HP Have eSkin?

HP has announced a new display technology called “eSkin”.

“HP eSkins is in fact a dynamic digital surface (and not just a static display) that can be controlled to address up to 80 segments to give the perception of movement and eye-catching motion. The segmented display can be turned off and on to create visual effects.”

Well that’s as clear as mud and sounds somewhere between eInk and LCD. Is it just a bespoke designer logo or device labelling product to personalise your device or does it hold other display features? No doubt it all will become clearer soon, or maybe not...but we like the name.

Indigo To Launch a EBook Reader?

CTV Canada broke an exclusive that Indigo Books & Music Inc. are currently planning to go with an exclusive E-Book Reader manufacturer deal in Canada by the end of this year. Reporter Kris Abel gotthe news direct from a chat with CEO Heather Reisman who was appearing on Canada AM. The Sony reader is already in Canada and enjoying some success and the Kindle remains constrained by its network below the 49Th line. So some would suggest that the move to support a ebook reader is a logical route. After all, Indigo is enjoying some success with its ShortCovers mobile app, which is currently available for the iPhone 3G, iPod Touch, BlackBerry and Android-powered devices.

Why do retailers enjoy exclusive deals and this obsession with beating the easy to beat competition? Indigo is a great store with a dominant position in Canada but who is their greatest threat today and tomorrow? If they go down an exclusive route with a reader then others in Canada will have to either fold under their competitors or go it alone? We saw Waterstones make an exclusive deal with Sony which on the face of it some would say alienated them and marginalised the opportunity. If every major UK retailer had launched with Sony last year we would be looking at a healthier market today in the UK.

Picking the winners from the losers is a hard bet in the ereader market today. Some would say – leave it to the consumer and market to decide the device, reading experience and even the terms (purchase versus rental) and make sure that the service and offer is the best. Exclusive means binary decisions which are black or white and pushing consumers into these is often a foolish route.

Google's Wave

Only yesterday we wrote about peeling back the layers of GoogleWorld and now we read about another. Wave, is a new communications platform that combines the likes of instant messaging, email, wikis, photo-sharing and document-sharing within a single browser. A collaborative, communications, open source navigation tool that can potentially bring under one roof and onto one platform all office applications: email, instant messaging, document-sharing and the like.

"A 'wave' is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps and more," Lars Rasmussen wrote on the official Google blog. "In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets and even feeds from other sources on the Web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content -- it allows for both collaboration and communication."

Wave could redefine applications and the role of the server giving users more control in how they communicate and where they communicate the key will be the ease of use and navigation.

Pinning the Tail on the Donkey

Today book pricing can be often regarded on a par with pinning a tail on a donkey. It’s not an exact science, its often a stab in the dark and as long as its in the general vicinity who cares. We would challenge any book buyer to go to any bookstore and accurately price the majority of books on the shelves. These can come in different shapes, sizes, pagination, with or without graphics, pictures, whatever, the diversity is very visible both of works and prices.

The issue of pricing for digital works is often complex. Do publishers base the price on the overall cost and effectively cross subsidise the various renditions and manifestations, or let each stand on its own with just the core acquisition costs being spread across all? As the revenue and cost mix changes, then the cost of producing and servicing the physical could rise, whilst the cost of the digital content should fall. However, we are a long way from that making a significant impact to many today.

So we have a digital investment cycle where publishers have the cost of establishing the infrastructure and support of digital workflow, content, metadata and marketing materials, rights management, distribution etc. with relatively little return. On the other hand they still have the cost of the physical world. To make matters worse, many still only create the digital content as an after thought and maintain the physical editorial and production process as the primary development process. Its perfectly understandable, but this ‘digital afterthought’ can also perpetuate the duplication of effort in creating and managing bibliographic and marketing materials, which in a digital workflow should be fully integrated.

So we come back to the thorny issue of pricing digital content. Yesterday the Rand Corporation announced that the suggested retail pricing on all RAND e-books was to be $9.95 each. RAND is a nonprofit research organization with some 900 titles which are available for the Kindle, iPhone, Sony and other platforms such as Overdrive, Books 24x7, ebrary, Ingram Digital/ MyiLibrary, netLibrary, Questia etc.

"In the past, we based our e-book price on the retail price of the print edition," said John Warren, marketing director for RAND Publications. "It's clear, however, that the economics of e-book distribution are different than print, where the cost of printing, distribution and returns factor into the price paid by consumers. Colour charts and a greater number of pages, for example, drive up the cost of print-on-demand, but are not a factor in electronic books."

So we have the infamous Amazon $9.99 price point and now a $9.95 one from Rand. Rand may not be a significant publisher to many, but the move again raises the issue on how to price digital content. Some will choose to base it on a discount off the latest edition. We can all see the issue when the paperback replaces the hardback and the price drops. We can all see the discount wars and a physical 3 for 2, which today is hard to replicate in the digital world. There is also the question of why the digital copy should be aligned to a physical one given that some may say it has, in some cases, been falsely inflated to accommodate deep discounts.

Often, when the situation becomes muddled, the market dictates. Look at music and the somewhat naïve moves by the trade to maintain artificially high regional and CD pricing against clear consumer backlash. They won the battle with the monopoly board, but lost the war on the street. The problem in publishing is that there are thousands of publishers and a growing number of digital resellers and it may only take a few to brake the ranks and set the price perception for all.

eInk and PVI Crearte One Vertical eInk Company

E Ink, the company that invented the e-paper displays on all the lookey likie ereaders such as the Kindle, Bebook, Hanlin, IRex and Sony and many more, has been acquired by Tiawanese Prime View International, which makes e-paper displays for the majority of the ereaders. The price is claimed to be some $215 million.

PVI acquired the e-paper business of Philips Electronics in 2005 and partnered with E Ink to provide ereader displays for the likes of the Kindle and Sony Reader. PVI also invested in flexible displays and has acquired a majority stakeholding in Hydis Technologies in Korea, who supply the transistor backplanes used in e-paper. The new combination creates a single company dedicated to electronic paper that will potentially speed up development.

E Ink and Prime View (PVI) were already partners and the goal is now to combine forces and expand capacity and e-paper improvements and push developments such as the long overdue colour and flexible displays.

The Show Must Go On?

Things change. Sounds glib, but reality is that nothing remains as it is forever. So why are we taken aback when many start to question the very social fabric of publishing – the book fair?

We didn’t go to BEA this year, not because we didn’t think it worthwhile, but simply because we felt a holiday break may prove more rewarding. We didn’t miss the frantic scurrying from stand to stand, the eating on the floor, the missed or late appointment and the sore feet? We missed the people one only sees at these events and of course Fred Bass’s Strand party. But life moves on and so should BEA, Frankfurt and London. We remember sitting in Frankfurt as the economic crunch was happening and thinking we were on some weird Titanic that refused to stop partying despite the reality of the world outside.

Just as the UK Booksellers Association has realised with their annual conference that the agenda moves on and there is always a need to question, revisit and improve. The BA conference may not work moving forward, or in its new form, but it has no god given right to do so just for the sake of it. It will be a pity if it now failed, but it has been doing so for some years, so it shouldn’t be a surprise.

It would be interesting to add the newsprint column inches devoted to Hay on Wye compared to the London Book Fair? Some may say that you can’t mix business events and consumer ones, but anyone who opens their eyes will tell you different. It’s a Book Event and should be managed, run and presented as one and remember there are only two people that matter, the creator who pours the effort in and the consumer who pays for it.

GoogleWorld Is One Big Onion

So Google is now officially going to be the biggest digital bookseller on the planet. The New York Times reports on the latest layer to be peeled back on the Google onion as it plans for media and content domination.

They certainly know the buttons to press and the words to say. Imagine you could paint a picture of a big bad wolf, blame them squarely for screwing up digital pricing, blame them for the audacity of dictating terms, point at them and deride them for creating a digital silo ereading offer that only worked in their world, with their content and on their devices. Then calmly turn around and claim that you (and only you) can save the world from this single state monopoly, give pricing back to the publishers, make digital content available anywhere, anytime and secure and delivered from a single digital warehouse. Not difficult to see the appeal of such a white knight.

The NYT claim that the Google white knight appears to be throwing down the gauntlet in the e-book market. Some would be more sceptical and suggest that they are merely herding sheep. Some would suggest that many can only see Grandma in bed and are unable to see the big bad wolf in Grandma’s clothing.

Mr. Turvey, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Google, is reported saying that Google’s program would allow consumers to read books on any device with Internet access, “We don’t believe that having a silo or a proprietary system is the way that e-books will go.” He also said that Google would reserve the right to adjust prices that it deemed “exorbitant.”

If we step back and look at the potential scenarios that could evolve:

1. Google’s Book Settlement goes backwards but Google is seen to be ‘nice’ and a settlement is sweetened by their books position with publishers and ‘free’ subscription deals with libraries.
2. Google’s Book Settlement goes through and you now have the biggest retailer, custodian, whatever, single source of new, old, and everything ever written. Who will dictate terms then? What alternatives are there to it?
3. As Google shift the model online they effectively kill off the lame ereaders and exposing their greatest weakness – the old ownership/ download model. The move creates a single source repository for all - Google Book World.
4. Google enters the print on demand world and render these through affiliated printers.
5. Google roll Audio into You Tube, or ‘You Play’ or ‘You whatever’ but do so on a streamed ad model (a la Spotify)
6. Google becomes the bibliographic source of reference and holder of all secondary material.
7. Google Book Search becomes the physical book search and discovery source using physical sources as affiliates for supply.

Forget the discounting battles of today what Google can even afford to do is shift the price up and maintain or even grow margin. This sounds like the answer to everyone’s prayers, or those still left standing after the digital Tsunami.

3 Screens In One could Kill Single Screen eReaders

Imagine a screen that operates in different modes; full colour, bright and conventional LCD; a very low-power, sunlight-readable, reflective e-paper mode; and a low-power, basic colour transflective mode. If successful, the displays could effectively bridge the high-speed, full-color benefits of traditional LCDs and the low-power, reader-friendly qualities of electronic ink displays. They could drive netbook sales and deliver new readers free from the current eink reader straightjacket.

Having designed the One Laptop Per Child’s (OLPC) reflective screen, Pixel Qi founder and CTO, Mary Lou Jepsen has good credentials and has posted the first pictures of the new 10.1” 3Qi display on her blog and plans to show engineering samples at Computex Taipei 2009.

The screens are initially expected to be available in 10.5-inch and 7.5-inch screen sizes and Jepson predicts will be available in the second half of the year in netbooks and e-book readers. A lot depends on the price of the 3Qi and if Jepsen can deliver close to regular LCD netbook panels, standalone LCD and e-ink panels might have a hard time justifying their existence.

E-reader makers have reason to fear such innovation because people will be able to buy devices with more functions for about the same price.

picture gizmodo

Connections From Ibiza

The last few days we spent time with a good friend David Currey in his and his partner Gary Hodge’s wonderful villa on the lively island of Ibiza. Hence the lack of recent posts!

What stuck us was how a villa half way up an island in the middle of the Mediterranean was better connected than we are in London and how global telecommunications are.

For instance we spoke about the success of the BBC iPlayer and then watched last week’s Apprentice that we missed. How can you connect to iPlayer outside the UK? The mobile reception was patchy but we then made a call back to the UK to a friend over his land line at UK rates using a UK number. All day Dave was receiving UK calls ordering Gary’s paintings and the other parties thought they were ringing a UK number. We could watch TV from around the world and Hulu from the US, even though its restricted to the US today! Of course he now is converted to Spotify. For business and personal reasons they also have multi currency accounts so can even pay many ways and the list goes on.

So before people tell you that territorial restrictions can be enforced we can reliably tell you how easy it is to break them.

Thanks for a great break Dave and if you want to see Gary’s wildlife and award winning art

Brave New World's 1,000th Article!

When we started this blog at the end of 2006 we had just finished the Brave New World report and set out to continue to inform the publishing community of digital media events, trends, opinion, insights and whatever we thought may be of interest. We never expected to write 1,000 articles and never anticipated to be still enjoying it today as much as the very first day.

It’s interesting that much of what we wrote in the report has happened, is happening, or is still likely to happen. Many of the threats risks and issues we envisaged have materialised. The omnivores we described have lived up to their billing and today we are faced with Google, Adobe, Sony, Amazon, Apple. These new entrants clearly talk about the legacy, the book, but do not share the same business drivers and models. Will they reshape the book as we know it today, almost certainly, but will it be once again driven and shaped by the format, or become format neutral and no long jacket bound?

It isn’t a surprise that Google followed by Apple and Amazon dominate the Brave New World index, with the Google Book Settlement being the most blogged about subject and the iPhone the most indexed device.

The report was written in the spirit of collaboration and promoted a vision of players working together to make it happen and support each other. However we have seen the increasing use of ‘exclusive’ digital deals. These can often have a marginalising effect and be counter productive in growing the market. Collaboration is a word much used and like interoperability is often little practiced. Many follow the new entrants and look to go direct to the consumer and in doing so adopt an ‘I am alright jack’ approach. The resultant duplication of effort may sort the real opportunities from the also rans, but it can also lead to much consumer confusion, duplication of industry effort and of course, waste. It is hardly surprising but understandable that today, as an industry, we still lack a point of digital reference, terms, table of comparisons and somewhere independent of ‘agendas’ for all to share and use. It is not surprising that many have exploited the lack of consensus, built their digital fortresses and land-grabbed orphan works.

There is still a lack of real digital leadership from within publishing and the big issues remain; DRM and its restrictive nature, territorial rights within a global economy, pricing and the $9.99 price point, the royalty model and author reward and the fact that digital is often an afterthought and produced on the back of analogue and linear production processes.

However, we see the digital shift starting to gain momentum and many opportunities ahead for authors and consumers. The big question is who will remain between these two in years to come? Who will be seen by both parties to add value and who will be disintermediated in the digital Brave New World?

Nokia launch Ovi App Store

Nokia the number one mobile player has finally launched its Ovi Store. The service will rival BlackBerry, Android and of course Apple’s app stores and will be available to 50 million Nokia users worldwide, allowing them to install software and games directly on to their handsets. Nokia intend to follow others by retaining 30% of apps sales revenues onsite.

Apple’s iTunes App Store has lead the field, with customers downloading more than a billion apps in the nine months since the service launched. It is expected that Microsoft will also launch its own mobile app store with the release of its new Windows Phone operating system later this year.

The list of Ovi compatible handsets is limited to 50 although Nokia's supports 125 mobiles . Interestingly operator billing is supported in the, which may result in micropayment, try before you buy apps and free minimum model opportunities.

Google Attempts to Placate Its Library Community

Sometimes you read news and can go straight to the core point and understand it other its like treading through treacle and you have top think hard what they are trying to say. So when the University of Michigan announced an amended deal with Google over its scanning programme we were perplexed on many fronts.

Some would say that Google is now bringing the libaries into the agreement albeit once more by their favoured back door. Others that its Google’s attempts to placate criticism, potential justice department eyes and win over the confused masses still trying to understand the settlement deal. Whichever the driver is we then have the agreement.

Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder and its president of technology is widely reported claiming opposition to the settlement is “pretty short- sighted and contradictory…There was no option prior to this to get these sorts of books online.”

The new agreement, which Google hopes other libraries will endorse, lets the University of Michigan and any of the other 21 US institutions that lend books to Google for scanning object if it thinks the prices Google charges libraries are too high. Any pricing dispute would be resolved through arbitration.

The new agreement also gives the university, and any library that signs a similar agreement, a discount on its subscription proportional to the number of books it contributes to Google’s mass digitization project. To rub the point home, Michigan will receive Google’s service free for 25 years and is hardly ever going to complain about anything. Some may see it as saying ‘I scan your books you get them cheap I don’t you pay my rates and can’t object.’

The new agreement does not cover the issue of orphan works and privacy of readers of Google’s digital library. Importantly it starts to raise the question of whose the library are we
http://www.lib.umich.edu/mdp/Amendment-to-Cooperative-Agreement.pdf

iPhone Appworld

Gartner report that the apps are clearly driving the smartphone market which has grow by some 3% and is now 13.53% of the total number of phones sold. Apple has seen a rise of 128% and with nearly 4 million units in the first quarter of 2009, they have doubled their share of the smartphone market to close on 11%.

So what is happening in the app world re ereaders?

Last week Apple censored the Eucalyptus ereader iPhone app because it carried ‘offensive content’ in the form of a download the Kama Sutra from Project Gutenberg. There were no pictures just text, but they say that reading is about imagination. The dispute is now over and Eucalyptus has received its publicity and the app is live on the app store at $5.99 with 20,000 public domain works from Project Gutenberg.

Is Eucalyptus any better or worse than the other ereader apps? It has some pluses and some minuses but despite the 20,000 titles you can’t help think where does it want to be when it grows up? Does it want to be an iPhone front end to project Gutenberg - a laudable mission but hardly one that is going to go places. Does it want to fill the possible space that may be now left by Stanza – again understandable, but is it as good or just placing itself on the shelf to be bought? We see a nice reader but little else today.

A few weeks after its purchase of Stanza Amazon just announced an upgrade to its Kindle for iPhone app. Is this following and mimicking the features developed by Stanza? The new release allows consumers to read in the landscape mode, pinch-zoom and scale-up images, use a tap or a flick to turn pages and you can now change backgrounds from black on white to white on black or even a sepia background for easier reading.

The big difference between Amazon and Eucalyptus is content. Eucalyptus has 20,000 public domain works, the Kindle’s has 275,000 titles. Amazon’s may be for sale but they are more relevant and its no good having the best reader if you can’t read the books you want to read on it.

Borders Enter A Brave New World

Borders Uk in going live with its new e-book service in the UK has taken a significant step into the Brave New World we reported on some two and half years ago. Some would say it is merely just another ebookstore and after all Waterstones has been selling ebooks for some 8 months and US retailers a lot longer. However, there is a difference and a significant one, for all the UK retailers who wish to sell digital books - it is powered by Gardners Books Digital Warehouse.

Gardners Books were the first to adopt an ‘inclusive’ technology that enables them to distribute not only the titles in its warehouse but titles in others digital warehouses and the resellers aren’t Gardners but any retailer with a connection. The same technology also underpins major digital publishers such as Taylor and Francis and the Danish library system eBog.dk.

No more does the publisher have to give even reseller, or even an aggregator their digital files. Everyone just agrees the messages to be exchanged and the files are held once, wherever and are only supplied direct to consumer when sold. Importantly it enables resellers to sell digital alongside physical books and have the books drop shipped direct to the consumer. No more is the customer handed over to another when they want an ebook. The retailer retains the transaction and the customer. This enables any retailer to sell ebooks on the internet, over the phone even in store and importantly continue to own the consumer relationship and their transaction.

Well done Borders for adopting an ‘inclusive’ not the ‘exclusive’ digital model of others.

Pirate Bay Judges Walk the Plank

The founders of The Pirate Bay were recently found guilty of breaking copyright laws and sentenced to one year in prison. The men were ordered to pay £2.5 million in damages to entertainment companies including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures. That ruling was appealed because the judge who sent them down - Tomas Norström - was a member of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Swedish Copyright Association.

The possibility of personal bias raised its head and Norström was replaced by Ulrika Ihrfelt, who has now been stood down because she's a member of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Swedish Copyright Association. A final decision on whether the case will return to court could still be many weeks away, but the chances of an appeal must certainly be increasing and unfortunately the law is once again is making an ass of itself.

So is $9.99 the eBook Price Point?

BooksOnBoard, the online eBook and Audio Book shop, has announced a massive discount on current New York Times Bestsellers, slashing prices from around $20-$30 to the price point of $9.99 and below. The price reduction is scheduled to last until Wednesday, May 27. So we see short term promotional price discounting similar to that done by Fictionwise, who some may say had one every weekend to celebrate everything and nothing. So what is the big deal?

Firstly $9.99 happens to be the price point chosen by Amazon for its ebooks and irrespective of whether they held it or not the perception sticks. So just like Apple did with the iTunes price point we now see others following with the $9.99 ebook price point.

Digital pricing may now no longer be established by the publisher or even the retailer but by the market. Once you have a recognised price point it is hard to drive consumers away from it. Look at the recent reaction when many raised concerns that they perceived Amazon was trying to raise the price from $9.99.

The question is not whether $9.99 is right or wrong but what is that impact on both the value chain and the author, publisher, aggregator, reseller etc? What is the knock on impact on the physical book model? Is the price point sustainable or merely a promotional price and how is that managed?

We have seen many readjustments in the ebook model such as the initial author rewards split being pegged back, with some advocating that they should now only receive a flat fee on digital.

Whenever we look at pricing there is that classic cause and effect implications that have to be thought through but in a market which has tens of thousands of authors, thousands of publishers, thousands of titles the point of aggregation often makes the decision and often based on their needs and their margins.

Readers Only Need One Place?

ReadersPlace aims to be the social networking site for book clubs, offering global interaction, debate and thoughts about their favourite books. They can web chat with authors live, get reading guides to more than 200 titles including author details and interviews, plot summaries, starting points for discussions and suggested further reading. Of course their will be promotional and discount deal offered at www.rbooks.co.uk.

West Midlands Library Authorities have been part of the pilot helping to develop the site and comes on the back of many innovative new services from Random House.

We welcome this more social engagement with readers and linking authors to their readers in every way possible. Our only comment is that its Random House and what a difference it would be if it embraced more publishers both large and small and all books. At a time when Richard and Judy are being put to rest and a simple twitter from Jonathan Ross can generate a twitter storm and best seller, one questions why its so hard for publishers and retailers to collaborative and embrace an inclusive model and approach? Some would say that its every man for himself and publishers are all after the same sale, but some would suggest the bigger prize is being lost and there are now some big gorillas sitting in the back yard who also don’t understand collaboration.

We believe that if say the major six UK distributors, all of which are owned by the major publishers, actually collaborated to create a joint social network it would probably cover 75% of the UK market and more importantly provide a real incentive for everyone to participate from the authors to th readers and that sales would flow to the deserving but the buzz would be significant. There again we are only dreamers.

Who Needs Esperanto

Esperanto was a ‘quango language’ developed in some vain attempt create a generic language we could all use. It failed.

For some time Google has offer it translate function under its search and we have often dropped whole chunks of text in it in order that we can understand text written in a foreign language. It may not get the grammar right but in a few seconds it does a great job of translation.

Following hot on the heels of its native PDF support, Google have now announced that it will embedded the feature into its email service GMAIL. A simply enables "Message Translation" from the Labs tab under Settings, and when you receive an email in a language other than your own, in one click Gmail will help you translate it into a language you can understand.

The question is whether it will be enough to get people to move to GMAIL, or whether users will simply cut and paste into the existing Google translation service.

Hulu To Step Into Kangeroo Void

Its ironic that the day that news broke that Orange has decided not to acquire the technology that was developed for Project Kangaroo, Hulu announced it was coming to the UK in September.

Kangaroo was the UK video on demand venture service proposed jointly by the UK broadcasters BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4, to position themselves in a global market and fully online. The service and some may say naively squashed by the government when it decided it wasn’t part of their Digital Britain plans and raised competition concerns. It emerged that Orange was considering making a purchase of Kangaroo's underlying IPTV technology for its Orange TV services in France and elsewhere in Europe, but now that is no more.

Hulu, the free online video-on-demand service backed by News Corp, NBC Universal and Disney, doesn’t face the same governmental controls and is set to launch in Britain in September 2009, with 3,000 hours of American content and ITV and Channel 4 as content partners. Hulu is also understood to be in talks with the BBC.

So rather than have a strong UK service we now all fall in with a very strong US one. It beggars belief what the legacy of this UK government will finally be but good decision making will not be high on many peoples lists.

It is rumoured that negotiations have paused due to Hulu wishing to retain control over Channel 4’s and ITV’s advertising sales on the platform. Who will give in and what ad model will prevail is unclear but it’s a shame that a UK solution was scuppered in the first place.

Its Good To Talk

What may you ask is the mobile termination rate and what does it mean and cost UK mobile users?

UK telecomms regulator Ofcom has announced a public consultation into the issue but public awareness may also help push the agenda forward and just as with roaming charges the EU may have a role to play in bringing about change.

The charge is a payment to mobile networks for receiving calls outside their network. Its set by the receiver and although it has dropped over the years it is now seen by many as counter productive and a money spinner. There are many devices are now exclusive to a network and the predominant user model is fixed term usage. This leads to users get tied into networks and the majority of calls received almost certainly being from fixed line and other networks.

The charge is currently 4.4 per minute for Vodafone and O2, 4.5p for Orange and T-Mobile and 5.4p for 3. The charge ultimately costs fixed line operators around £750m a year generates 14% per cent of mobile-to-mobile revenue. The USA, the model is effectively reversed and incoming minutes count as part of your bundle.
Ofcom also agrees that terminating networks have a monopoly position on the charge and is considering a number of options. So it appears we may soon be paying a lot less to talk.

To read more The Register

So What Do You Between The Sheets?

We used to curl up in bed with a good book and if we were cold a hot water bottle but today perhaps the computer gives us both and some radiation to boot!

According to figures released today by data security specialists Credant technologies, 57% of people in the UK who their work in bed “do so for between 2 and 6 hours every week.” Yes the survey did say work, not watching movies, catching up on iPlayer or playing games, but work. They also said their partners found it "a very annoying habit". 8% also confessed to spending more time on their mobile devices during the evening than talking to their partners and 4% said checking email was the last thing they did before going to sleep. So, if you’re turning down your better half’s sexual advances in favour of some hot newsfeed or email thoughts from a colleague, then perhaps you have a problem.

Obviously people are now so mobile and technology fixed they will work anywhere – even in bed." There again, these were city workers!

So just how dependant on your technology fix are you?

Used Games Kiosks

Ars Technica gave us a fascinating insight into used games with a report ‘The facts behind the game-trade kiosks’. It tells of a new kiosk being deployed ePlay in 77 Wal-Mart NorthEast US stores and 200 other locations.

The gamer wanting to sell his game can get it valued on line or take it to the kiosk and scan it in. If the trade in price is ok the disc is inserted and the kiosk identifies its condition and authenticity and the seller’s id and the empty jewel case is inserted into the trade bin beside the kiosk. If the disc is not genuine or poor condition the kiosk spits it out and says it’s unacceptable.

If the disk is unidentifiable or does not match what the user stated, there will be a screen that advises the user that the disk did not match and the disk will be returned credit will be withheld. Recovered disc are then sent to their refurbishing and distribution centre.

These kiosks also enables the user to purchase or rent games. We can’t see it in the Book business where even the kiosk dispenser has failed to catch on.

Can You Live Even a Week Without Technology?

The BBC have a video of some teenagers in Los Angeles who took part in an experiment to find how they would cope without their electronic gadgets for a week. It worth watching and is an interesting insight into our dependency on both technology and electronic communication.


Perhaps, its time we had a technology rest day just to remind us of what these kids experienced.

Looking at the World Through a Lens

The New York Times has launched a large-format photo blog to showcase photojournalism projects. The blog is aptly called Lens, draws on the prestige of the paper. The blog has no dedicated staff and no budget for photography. It will showcase work shot for the Times’ print edition, personal projects by Times photographers, wire service photographs, and work provided for publication at no cost.

The Times promises to also highlight "the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies." According to the site, images from the Times pictorial archives, said to number in the millions of images dating back to the early 20th century, will also be shown.

You can expect us to ask you for your photos on some topical subject or theme," notes Times blogger David W. Dunlap.

Lens has an Adobe Flash interface that lets viewers view images using arrow keys and allows them to display photographs full-screen without the clutter of menu bars. You can view all today's images and makes reviewing the news through a lens very interesting. Well done for something very different

How Thin Is Your TV?

How thin can TVs go? Apparently by changing the underlying technology LG has created what it claims is the world’s thinnest LCD TV panel which is 5.9mm thick or thinner than the average pencil! The screens are only available in 42in and 47in screen sizes and weigh only 6.1kg for the 42in and 7.3kg for the 47in which is claimed to be 50% lighter than similar sized LCDs lit by cold cathode elements.

Instead of placing LEDs behind the screen to light the display the technology uses LEDs placed around the edges of the screen. The technology is not new or unique with Samsung introducing a 32-55in range of edge-lit screens earlier this year.

So TVs may becoming like pictures anyone can hang on the wall and maybe without extra strong fixtures!

Cybook Opus Takes Ebook Readers Smaller

So as the eink readers go after the textbook and newprint world and get larger one has decided to go pocket size and compete with other mobile devices. Bokeen has announced the Cybook Opus E-Reader a small 5.3 ounces device has a 5-inch e-ink screen, with a 600-by-800-pixel resolution, and can display text in 12 different font sizes. It's also designed to be operated with one hand, with shoulder page-changer buttons and a central joystick-like control; has a motion sensor to rotate the display for landscape orientation, and 1GB of on-board storage. It supports ePub and PDF formats

Palm and Apple Will Contest June

June looks to be the ‘mobile month’ with the much awaited launch of the Palm Pre in the US on the 6th June and whatever Apple are going to announce two days later on the 8th.

We can only speculate on the Apple moves but we can clearly state the Palm Pre ones. The device announced as the ‘iPhone killer’ finally arrives albeit in the US only and also only on the Sprint network. No launch date has bee announced for the UK. The much-anticipated handset will cost $199.99 (£129), after a rebate, and buyers must take out a two-year contract when signing.

One of the most appealing features of the Pre is webOS, the operating system that combines a variety of online services into a finger-friendly user interface. The phone automatically recognises when owners connect to social or e-mail services and builds up a global list of contacts and login details as it is used. Unlike many other phones, the handset also allows owners to have several different applications running at the same time.

The large touch screen, Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, 8 GB of storage, and Bluetooth, all stack up well against rivals like the iPhone 3G, BlackBerry Storm, and the T-Mobile (Android) G1.

Palm will also be launching the Touchstone charging kit June 6. This puck-sized device can charge the handset wirelessly. The Touchstone charging kit will be sold for $69.99. Palm is also investing in an iPhone-style software development kit for third-party developers to create applications for WebOS called theMojo SDK.

The Pre's release date could be a gamble coming two days before Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference and theBlackberry Storm, was also billed as the iPhone killer.

On Demand Overtakes the Rest

We now have more US on demand and short run titles coming to market than those produced by traditional production methods. However, what does that mean and if the trend were to continue, what are the likely implications? Bowker report today that whilst traditional title production fell by 3% to 275,232, in 2008, the on demand titles rose 132%, to 285,394 and the number of titles rose 38%, to 560,626 titles. The rise in on demand follows the record increase of 462% in 2007 and since 2002, has risen 774% in comparison to a 126% increase in traditional titles.

Today on demand is not just about self publishing or keeping that back list alive and is gaining a wider publishing take up. Yesterday was very much print just in case and accepting that ‘extra special print run-on’ to reduce the unit cost. Today is more print in time, producing short print runs with the ability to quickly respond to demand if required. The long tail is getting longer, with more publishers looking at their back list, or to keep titles in print by flipping them to POD and so avoiding rights reversals. The investment is low and has long attracted self publishing authors wanting to see themselves in print. It has also worked well for high priced mongraphs whose sales are low and reasonably predictable. Some such as Cambridge University Press have proved themselves ver adept in using POD to increase revenues.

However, POD has not only helped built the Ingram Lightning Source but also help kick start the Ingram Digital Ventures. The flip from POD to ebook is but a small step and as PDF based Adobe eBooks are still the dominate format, the relationship between POD and eBook will surely grow ever stronger in many ways.

We now see new POD entrants and the production of service neutral files linked to automated formatting and distribution makes much sense moving forward.

Finally will the self publishing model now move online or ebook and away from POD, or will the lure of a printed book still seduce these authors? Whatever the direction the file once created can potentially serve both.

Giving eink a Bad Name?

So you roll over in the early hours of the morning and look at your watch and can instaly see the time , no more squinting and trying to read the luminous dials in the dark. However is that really the ultimate use of eink technology or vanity gone mad?

Phosphor are introducing a line of e-ink watches which look a liitle less Bond and a bit more Thunderbirds without the FAB. The retro-future style is probably clunky to most but will appeal to some and the oversized fit the oversized price ticket of around $200.

The Digital Hour model has two different views, one with huge numerals and another with a circular hour dial. The Phosphor Calendar, tells you the time and a month’s calendar, with day-of-the-week indicator.

Personally we still await the LG wrist phone which has style, functionaly and unfortunately a high price ticket.

Digital Textbooks Are Only Part of The Solution

We read today in the Bookseller that ‘Amazon prepares for 'textbook e-reader wars'’. The story emulates from Evan Schnittman, vice-president global business development at Oxford University Press who claims that amazon had revealed the device early so it could stake out its territory before the academic market becomes home to the "textbook e-reader wars".

The reality is that there will be a battleground in all levels of education for what is a very lucrative prize, that of the device of choice for students of all ages and the sale of content to them. Will the solution be the same? It’s a hard call, but what is clear is that the device by itself will not be the answer. The device plus ebooks, in whatever format, is even not the answer. To everyone but the textbook publisher these are merely part of the answer.

Students require connectivity, reference, to be able to capture notes, bookmark, diaries, collate files, create documents, will probably not be restricted to text, or even greyscale. Therefore ask yourself as a student with limited disposable income, would you rather invest in a Kindle DX at $489 (£325) or more suitable devices that are not tied to content and a single business model and that can’t connect to all resources and can do more than download and store mere documents.

Ask these three basic questions to the students:
Do you own a iphone?
Do you own a kindle?
Do you own a laptop / netbook?
Next ask them if they don’t have all the above would they expect to buy one in the next 12months?

The King or Kindle may have new clothes but it’s the same underneath.

Scribd today iTunes Tomorrow?

Last December Social publishing firm Scribd announced that it has raised $9 million and had hired George Consagra, former chief operating officer of Bebo, as its president. Since then the news has been ‘mixed’, it now claims 60 million visitors a month, has got some support from some publishers uploading their content and on the downside a significant amount of bad press over their hosting of copyright infringed materials. Inherently it is a document sharing site – a YouTube for documents, letting anyone upload sample chapters of books, research reports, homework, recipes and the like. Users can read documents on the site, embed them in other sites and share links over social networks and e-mail. It claims to have amassed 35 billion words in a mix of books, PowerPoint presentations, legal briefs, and other documents.

Today Scribd has moved up a gear announcing it will be an ecommerce site enabling publishers, authors and owners to charge for their materials so moving from YouTube to eBay, or as they hope iTunes. A logical step and one that should result in a deluge of previously self published materials, publisher experiments and without doubt some more questionable pirate works. The new store will enable users to set their own price for their work and keep 80% of the revenue. They can also decide whether to encode their documents with DRM security software that will prevent their texts from being downloaded or freely copied.

Scribd has also announced plans for an application for the iPhone next month and that it is also building a database of copyrighted works in an attempt to help filter out pirate works and negate publisher’s fears and frustrations. Scribd may hope that by enabling publisher to make money it can mollify its critics but may be hard for publishers to back a venture that is at the same time seen to be undermining them.

The interesting aspect will be not the mainstream publishing works which will no doubt be poured in by many eager to see if they can make extra revenue at no cost but with self published works. Will it change the vanity market from print on demand to online? Will it bring more short stories or serialised stories to the market? Will it undermine the position of the publisher who will now clearly site alongside every budding author on what may be a level playing field? Will it provide the market tested slushpile of the future? Will the database of copyright be seen to perform or undermine its adoption?

We now await the market reaction and obvious response from others such as Wattpad.

Kindled

Would you pay to read this blog? The answer would probably a resounding no. We may get upset but the reality it isn’t what you pay for and there are plenty more where this came from.

However, Amazon's latest experiment may start people to think about the value of the things they read as they try to persuade consumers to pay for online content such as blogs. By paying a nominal price for a subscription, users can have automatic access to their favorite blogs. Well we couldn’t ignore the opportunity to experiment with them so as of a day soon (it has to be moderated first) those of you in the US with a Kindle will be able to read this blog. Obviously any colour, animations will be missing but it will be interesting to watch and we never cease to be amazed at what happens in this new world.

It will be interesting to see what the subscription price will be set at and if there are any takers.

You Are Never Too Old

Who said that the technology and digital revolution was only for the young? When Ivy Bean heard that a 97 year ago French woman was the oldest member of Facebook she decided to join. She soon attracted 5,000 friends and has 17,775 people waiting to be her friend. Unless you know someone older, Ivy from Bradford is now the oldest Facebook member at 103 years old and has now joined Twitter and already has 9500 followers!

Her daughter Sandra Logan, 61, said: "It has given her a new lease of life and she has met some marvellous people all over the world. She speaks to a woman in Norway who has named a cow after her."

Her latest twitters read :
‘hello im going to spend my morning reading papers ‘, ‘i have now reached 5,000 followers so im saying goodnight for today be back tomorrow thank you everybody ‘, ‘had a loverly afternoon with my friends here at hillside just had tea just having a chat with the staff.’

The PC may have past many of the older generation by and been seen by them as a mere expensive toy, the mobile may be viewed by many as a complex phone and only used as a phone, email may dominate our lives but unless you have others to email its not essential. Now thanks to new high-speed broadband connection in public libraries, thousands of pensioners are now able to only to join Ivy and learn new ways to communicate. This older group may now have found the way to start to be engaged in the digital world and influence its direction.

They may not have the disposable income but they have the time, a wealth of knowledge and experience and are historically heavy readers. Many may want to capture their own history and experiences, not necessarily for money but as a legacy, others to just find new friends. It is relatively easy to see many social communities develop that were not possible a few years ago.

Is it possible that we may start to see a shift, not only the source of content for the self publishing market, but also to break away from the current vanity publishing business models that may be seen to exploit vanity, more than encourage writing. We don’t need long works and these new tools demand shorter more focused content. Maybe it’s the older generation that will lead us to rethink the book in a digital form.

Well done Ivy and long may you enjoy twittering

Making Your Mind Up or Not?

Apparently by some divine intervention, or stab in the dark, The New York Times will decide by the end of June how to charge content and what content it will charge for. So what are the options that they are considering and what will it mean to their readers the news and the future of the paper?

But in the same week it announced its charging review it also announced that is changing the way it delivers online news to its readers, in rolling out its new Times Reader 2.0 desktop application. The app is built on the Adobe AIR platform, offering a desktop readers news by categories in easy-to-read columns. The important difference will be that the days news is downloaded at the start of the connection , obviating the need to be online to read it. Each section of the paper is represented in the Times Reader 2.0 and appears on the same day it would appear in print. It also provides the user with the opportunity to browser the paper and happen on stories they way they would with the physical paper. It also supports video and crosswords.
The Times Reader 2.0 will be included in the cost of a print subscription. Otherwise, interested readers can download the Adobe AIR application and read the news for a subscription rate of $3.45 per week.

So what about these other options and why the mixed stories. The New York Observer claims that in its report that Executive editor Bill Keller told a staff meeting last week that one includes a "meter system." The user roam freely on the Web site until hitting a predetermined limit of word-count or pageviews, after which after the meter starts and the reader is charged for every movement thereafter. This is obviously fraught with negatives; the user may be prepared to read under the limit then switch off, alternatively set the meter too high and the reader will never pay. The second proposal is a membership to the community. “You write a check, you get a gift and access and join the club. Again how do you plan on such a club having the right appeal for the right numbers to join? It is reported that Kerr said that once the decision is made it may take some time to implement that a pay model may be applied to The Times' mobile Web site first before the Web site as a whole.

So either we have contradicting stories in circulation or NYT is tapping the keyboards whilst Rome burns.

Hearst's Views on Digital Magazines

The Telegraph covers an interesting interview and article with Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines Cathie Black president of Hearst Magazines and the First Lady of glamorous glossies

Talking about the range of titles under her control she says "You have Cosmopolitan magazine with a cute picture on the front. Then there's the internet, the mobile site, the e-reader, the books, the television programme, the radio show. Only then do you have a 360 degree brand."

Black strongly believes that the e-reader, hand-held devices will be the next big medium for magazines and have the potential to exploit the stylish layout of a consumer magazine. She is reported saying, "The company has a big investment in a product called Firstpaper," but concedes two hold ups, "Most readers don't do full colour yet and there's no way it can handle advertising at this point. But there will be advertising. That has to be that part of the model."

She doesn’t think that paid for subscriptions for magazines, “because they are not informational like a financial newspaper…We have to think of magazines and newspapers as two very separate entities – not disassociating ourselves exactly, but we do need to keep our distance."

We have already reported on the Hearst marketing initiative in fitting microchips that showed a scrolling, eye-catching advertisement for a cable television channel to the February edition of Esquire and Black is certainly keen to continue to experiment.

"Maybe now there's too much choice in the digital world," she finnishes, "How funny if we all ended up back with our print copies."

Spotify Plans and US Entry?

Our favourite music streaming service, Spotify, which has more than a million UK users and provides a legal alternative to unlicensed file-sharing services and enables artists, record labels and music publishers to receive royalties, has announced it plans. They are working on an iPhone application, but also wants to make the service available on other handsets. The mobile service will be only available to paying subscribers.

They also aim to improve sound quality, enabling new releases before they hit shops, more social networking features, exclusive tracks, behind-the-scenes material from big-name artists and merchandising such as T-shirts, concert tickets and vinyl will be sold to fans as they are listening to their favourite band. Spotify are working on a deal with Last.fm to provide song recommendations and making it easier for fans to find acts they like.

Spotify is currently available in the UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France and Spain, but now plan to take the service to the US.

A Cheap Kindle?

A Kindle for under $100 on Ebay!


Be careful with the splinters in the finger!

Asus has launched the Eee PC Seashell slimline netbook in London. The 10” LED screen, has a power-efficient Atom N280 processor, 1GB of memory, 160GB hard drive, multi-touch trackpad, Windows XP Home and Microsoft Works. It weighs a mere 1.1kg, and is claimed to run for up to 6 hours. Asus are primed to also launch a number of other EEE related products in the next few weeks.



The 1008HA Seashell is clearly one of a number of Macbook Air and MSI has also announced its ultra-thin X340 and X320 notebooks will be released in the UK at the end of May. These weigh-in at 1.3Kg and measure 330mm x 224mm x 19.8mm. The X340 and X320 both offer widescreen 13.4The disappointment is the price with the X340 predicted to cost around £850 and the X320 and around £650.

No More A Roaming We Will Go?

Vodafone has become the first mobile phone operator to abolish roaming charges, meaning its customers will pay the same price abroad as they do at home. From June 1, Vodafone’s 18 million UK passport customers will be able to call and text phones in Britain from 35 European countries for the same price that they would be charged in Britain. This is initially on offer until the end of August. It is this move could be followed by other mobile operators as caps on roaming fees are due to come into force on July 1.

Viviane Reding, the EU Telecoms Commissioner has targeted the charges a “roaming rip-off”, with a two-year plan to cut charges by an average of 60%.The price of a roaming for a British customer in Europe could be cut from an average 25p to a maximum of 10p and the cost of downloading a megabyte of information will cost no more than 92p if consumers pay standard rates. The current cap of 41p per minute for a call made to Britain from another EU country will drop to 31p by July 2011.

Vodafone has also announced plans to launch a mobile application store for their 290 million worldwide customers, following similar announcements from others such as RIM, Nokia, and Microsoft. Software developers will be able to use to store as a single point of access to Vodafone’s global customer base. Developers will be able to use Vodafone’s billing system to charge for apps with a share of their profit going directly to Vodafone.

Sony Reader to Carry Adverts

New Media Age reported that Sony is likely to soon include third-party advertising opportunities on its Sony Reader as more publishers come on board. The devices is claimed to have sold over 300,000 units globally and today is seen by many as the opponent to Kindle and outside the US its often viewed as the only offer and certainly the only device that can render DRM epub today. However, as other devices adopt the Adobe ACS4 toolkit it position as the only epub device will soon be negated.

So why adverts and how will they appear? Will Sony discount the device in line with the ad revenues expected or publishers use it as a sampler similar to the Kindle? Can we get an ad free device at a premium? Are ads coming to accomadate newspapers, magazines and a larger reader – afterall Kindle has 3 models and Sony only has two. Are ads part of a larger programme to be wireless and therefore offer the ability to not only connect without the Adobe Editions mothership but also transact direct from the Sony reader?
Steve Haber, president of Sony Electronics’ digital reading business division, is reported “Advertising is not part of the business model at the moment but I would imagine that when it comes to periodicals, newspapers and magazines, those businesses are built around the advertising model so I would imagine it going in that direction.”

So what does the ereader want to be when it grows up?

Perhaps it can take on some of the business that Craiglist is now turning away. The US classified ads website says it will remove its erotic services category. Apparently, it promotes prostitution and prostitutes and clients use the site for illegal sexual encounters.

Several law enforcement agencies across the US have threatened the management of Craigslist with prosecution and last November Craigslist announced a deal with 40 state attorneys general that said it would charge for erotic services ads and require advertisers to use a credit card for payment.

In place will be a new closely monitored adult services section.

Encore une fois

Amazon has announced a new program called AmazonEncore in which they will license and republish previously-published books that they believe have been overlooked and also by authors that they believe show potential for greater sales. The announcement notes that in addition to offering titles through Amazon, the Kindle store and Audible, they will make Encore books available to the trade. Amazon intend to publish the English-language edition of encore books in all countries where they have a web site.
The first book chosen is by 16-year-old Cayla Kluver and is her self-published fantasy romance novel LEGACY, which Encore will republish in hardcover in August. Amazon acquired world English rights from the original publisher Forsooth (created by Kluver's mother to publish the book).

It is not clear today whether all Encore’s books will be from previously self published titles and whether Amazon is trying to make serious inroads into attracting self published authors into their stable, or whether Amazon is taking steps to redefine itself as an end to end player. There is no reason why the same model can’t be applied to orphan works, previously mainstream published works under a new licence and whether they will also now buy into reprint runs. Amazon has the clout and focus to make any descent book a bestseller, even if that is within there own fortress. Some may say that this will further strengthens their control of the market and their bottom-line.

The driver for the new venture will be based on, "information such as customer reviews on Amazon websites." Amazon has long captured feedback and if added to its sales data and also that from its other services such as ABE it makes a solid base on which to select its titles. ‘Brought back by popular demand’ is also a very customer centric approach which will resonate with many who may today see shelf space being bought and what some may also call manufactured winners.

French Three Strikes Makes the Statute

The media world has been quietly watching the French attempts to implement a ‘three strikes and you are out’ law for punishing people who download music and films illegally by cutting off their Internet connections. First it was happening then no one turned up and it didn’t get passed now the first government agency to punish online pirates has been created in France.

The vote has cleared both chambers and is to be French law, or is it?

Critics say the law misses the point, targeting traditional downloads at a time when online streaming is taking off and others claim that users using public WiFi hotspots or using masked IP addresses might make them impossible to trace.

Last week the European Parliament prohibited any EU governments from cutting off a user's Internet connection without first passing through a court of law. This still needs ratification by the European Council but would impact the new French law before the ink has even dried.

Critics say the law misses the point, targeting traditional downloads at a time when online streaming is taking off and others claim that users using public WiFi hotspots or using masked IP addresses might make them impossible to trace.

Brave New World Revisited Part 1: Are we all Participating

There have been some interesting debates in the blogshere and over emails about what appears to be the threat of the new entrants and the overall balance of the publishing marketplace. These are not new and were well documented in our Brave New World report close to 3 years ago. What is now new is that the reality is starting to happen, changes are starting to be seen and the industry is now starting to wake up and smell the coffee.

So what are we talking about? Today we look briefly at the independents’ digital opportunities

First, there is contrary to many beliefs a real place for the independent bookseller in the digital marketplace but they need to want to participate and be allowed to participate. There are no free lunches and natural extensions of the physical world. Equally those who believe that the independents can’t participate or wish to steal their market better wake up and think about how they bridge the revenue gap – if you take out your existing channel you take out your existing revenues. You may not like who you have to do business with tomorrow.

Second, unless the digital divide between those who can and those who aren’t allowed is closed then the digital divide could come home to bite all. Publishing has long been said by some to be like spread betting you place many bets and hope that the overall receipts will outweigh the bets placed. When you narrow the market then spread bets become harder and mistakes a lot more painful. By retaining and supporting the existing channel we can ensure options are not closed down. The digital age gives us the ability to create a level playing field but all too often we choose the technology to narrow and close down the field.

Third, Digital is good and can live alongside physical. They are only mutually exclusive if we want them to be. Yes, digital may reduce the effectiveness of a general offer but it can also reduce the effectiveness of a vertical one. Those who advocate either or, do not respect that the world is not binary today, nor tomorrow. Digital offers booksellers and librarians the real opportunity to engage, add value and develop their communities but if all is achieved is a ‘white label’ web site they have failed miserably. That doesn’t preclude them from selling white label stock, that’s a given, but giving away their customers or treating them as mere distant buyers is not a wise course to pursue.

Fourth, price matters. Of course consumers will always be drawn to price but this tends to be for know items not browsing. So the key is to capture the browser, the impulse buy and keep hold of him and use the bookselling skills to sell to him irrespective of price but built on trusted relationship.

The Brave New World report has so far failed to deliver its promise. Some may say it couldn’t work and the cards were stacked against it, others will point to the infamous BA conference walk-out and the bad positioning of some of the follow-up process, others to the power of the new entrants, some would suggest the folly of exclusive and marginalised deals etc. We believe that only today with the imminent roll out of inclusive and not exclusive services such as Gardners Digital Warehouse in the UK, do we see a opportunity for all to participate. However, even as we write some may suggest that there are rules set for some that are not being allowed for others.

BBC iPlayer Under The Sheets?

We have written before about the hugely successful BBC iPlayer but were amazed that it now claims to stream 12GB of data every second, and seven petabytes (PB) of data every month.

BBC iPlayer boss Anthony Rose, who was previously CTO at that famous music file sharing service Kazaa, disclosed much about its future in an exclusive interview with CNET UK, 'BBC iPlayer Numbers Revealed'.

Interestingly they clearly back the streaming route over downloads and according to Rose, its clearly what everyone wants today. He intimates that there could be a personal service feature sending alerts, enabling pre booking and updating your online library. The usage must reflect lifestyle and peaks about 10pm, about one hour later than TV , but the iPlayer on the iPhone peaks at about midnight with a further peak on Saturday and Sunday morning at about 8-10am. So users obvious now curl up with their iPhone to catch up on their favourite TV.

Dell Deliver the Mini10 Netbook

Dell has announced the arrival of its Mini 10v netbook which is now available on it website. So the netbook market is starting to hot up and we remind ourselves that these aren’t a replacement for the laptop today but will provide that portable device that is capable of much more than a mobile, significantly more than a greyscale ereader or any dedicated device and weigh little and have a small footprint. The quest is to get the price right and ensure that the accessories are bigger than the device itself!


Dell have launched the Mini series in a variety of colours, (Ice Blue, Cherry Red, Jade Green etc), with hard-drive space from 160GB and 1GB memory as standard, built-in webcam, new internal 802.11b/g WiFi connection , Bluetooth connectivity and a choice of Linux Ubuntu or XP operating systems. The screen is 10.1”, a 16.9 ratio and can be connected to a larger screen or TV and is around the size of a large ereader but with colour and much more! The keyboard is 92% the size of a normal keyboard and is ‘spill resistant’! The weight is under 3 pounds and it claims extended battery life. The price starts at £199 which for a new product is fair but is now likely to drop as more come onboard.

Interestingly Dell have also announced the Inspiron 15 a laptop with 15.6-inch HD display, a 'large' hard drive and DVD burner and are priced from £299.

Another Day Another eBook Reader

We read today in Tech radar of yet another ebook reader set to launch in the UK later this month. At first glance it looks the same as the rest only in a snazzy colour jacket. So why does its designer and self styled "entrepreneur, author, avid reader and world traveller" Neil Jones, believe it offers the "iPod moment" for e-readers?

It is apparently lighter weighing only five ounces, its batteries are claimed to last for weeks, it’s thinner at one-third of an inch thick and it comes in 8 languages and in 8 colours, but does it pass the so what test? Finally, it will be available from Coolerbooks.com along with a library offer of over a million eBooks for download from the end of the month. Its owners, Interead from Reading, claim to have the iTunes moment but somehow we believe they have just more noise. The pictures look very similar to a rebadged reader already in the market. Their claim of a million titles is certainly interesting, as it would give it the biggest library on the planet after Google and even Sony’s half a million public domain works would look small, but where would they get a million titles and are they what the consumer wants or mere fillers?

We wait but fear hype, albeit coloured hype.

Book Piracy: A Case of Whack-A-Mole

Last month we wrote about the issue of digital book piracy and along with others such as Peter Cox at Litopia, raised the bar on the public awareness of the issue. Today the New York Times wrote an article ‘Print Books Are Target of Pirates on the Web’, which again raises the agenda further.

One quote from the article which can best describe the problem was made by Russell Davis, an author and president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a trade association that helps authors pursue digital pirates who said “It’s a game of Whac-a-Mole, you knock one down and five more spring up.”

When Litopia raised the issue of Scribd, some said it was unfair and the site shouldn’t be targeted, as it tried and was responsive when take down notices were sent. Others said the same about Wattpad. Our defence would be to browse Scribd and see the volume of taken downs that have been actioned and where they state the file has been removed. There isn’t a takedown without an infringement!

Some say that piracy is small and only the same as shrinkage and theft in physical stores, but is that a real excuse, or merely a case of apathy?

Plead all they can, the sites simply allow any material to be posted and only if it is a know infringement, or they get a take down notice, do they respond. They may claim that taking proactive action could land them with the liability so to take no proactive action is safer. The problem is that the mechanism of the DMCA (digital millennium copyright act) is inherently flawed, as it is retrospective action and is like trying to put the cat back in the bag – its too late its out its out and having kittens!

The efforts being expended by publishers in tracking infringements is growing, with many large house having to have dedicated staff continuingly trawling, tracking and issuing take down notices. This may work for the large corporate, but is it realistic across the thousands of medium or small publishers? Some may say that it’s like giving each a shovel and asking them to all to ‘wack-a-mole’?

Today we are only talking about whole works and not even attempting to cover part works or content of sufficient size to warrant permissions. Rather than build infringement databases that just generate take down notices, why not address the problem. We are trying to manage a rights business with no rights management.

This has been raised over and over and the proposed BRR registry isn’t the answer but only part of the answer. We have bibliographic agencies who catalogue all titles. We know that you can’t resell a digital file and each rendition and manifestation is unique. We have identifiers which identify genuine booksellers, publishers, libraries. Yet we can’t join the dots up and create a proactive environment. Some may say that we let businesses hide behind ineffective DCMA.

If leadership is not taken, then we may all find that ‘Whack-a-Mole’ becomes an increasing part of the publishing business.

Bring Your Own iPhone to College

It may have been the case once that you could go to school without a pencil or a textbook but the Missouri School of Journalism have taken it to new heights insisting that students who wish to be budding journalists have to bring their own iPhone or iTouch if they wish to attend. According to their web site they have insisted in students having their own wireless laptop since 2005 and obviously have strong ties with Apple and they recommend that too.

Missouri School of Journalism state that students will be able to electronically download material to either of the devices from iTunes University, a no-cost component of the iTunes Store. The school’s technology store, claims that 90% of Missouri students have iPods. Students with financial aid packages may include the cost of the iPod touch or iPhone and packages because it is mandatory required.

So we clearly have the technology companies all lining up to get a slice of the college market and now joined by Amazon with their new Kindle DX and lining up with textbook publishers. Amazon are also playing the iPhone field with their reader application designed for the iPhone and iPod touch, which is available through Apple’s App Store and the announcement yesterday of their Safari book store for the iPhone app.

So the old saying about ‘catch them young’ may be coming true as students who become very familiar with a certain device and technology may be hard to ween off it after they have finished their course and therefore we have a double wammy with the technology companies retaining them for many years. Mind some would say that the banks have done the same for years.