E-book wars
February 17th 2010 09:03
Every so often I get an ezine from Martin Taylor , who looks very like someone I know - maybe it's a Presbyterian minister. Martin is a publisher and consultant with a special interest in the information technology,
internet and business media markets.
His ezines usually consist of one (often lengthy and knowledgeable) article. No one's ever had to say to Martin Taylor 'find a job' because this boy is entrepreneurial to the max.
His most recent piece was called, Why Apple’s iPad is shaking things up with Amazon and Google, and he takes a somewhat different view of the soon-to-happen e-books wars.
He makes some great points: getting consumers to pay for digital content and reduce its reliance on a broken online advertising model ...is at the heart of the media’s excitement. So it’s not surprising that a lot of the early jostling is for control of the one major medium that’s largely ad-free, books.
Advertising, as he's pointing out, has been one of the major no-shows in the Internet scene. It just doesn't work there the way it has in other media.
He goes on to say: In this new world, the PC is no longer centre stage. Increasingly, what we’re spending our time doing is communicating, surfing the internet and consuming media online, not running applications like Microsoft Office. To do this, people want inexpensive gadgets that are highly portable, comfortable for lengthy reading or watching videos, simple to use, with long battery life, and always connected to the web.
I think the thing for many consumers is that the PC is still centre stage because that's where we're still at. Okay my wife has an Iphone, but I don't see myself needing one (even though I play with hers at times, and will readily admit it's been handy on occasion).
One of my work colleagues has got herself a tablet (laptop) with a touch screen. Personally I'm just as happy working at my ordinary PC, which doesn't require touching at all.
Anyway, enough of my addiction to the PC - Taylor writes a very intelligent and well-debated article. Get on and read it and forget my blathering.
His ezines usually consist of one (often lengthy and knowledgeable) article. No one's ever had to say to Martin Taylor 'find a job' because this boy is entrepreneurial to the max.
His most recent piece was called, Why Apple’s iPad is shaking things up with Amazon and Google, and he takes a somewhat different view of the soon-to-happen e-books wars.
He makes some great points: getting consumers to pay for digital content and reduce its reliance on a broken online advertising model ...is at the heart of the media’s excitement. So it’s not surprising that a lot of the early jostling is for control of the one major medium that’s largely ad-free, books.
Advertising, as he's pointing out, has been one of the major no-shows in the Internet scene. It just doesn't work there the way it has in other media.
He goes on to say: In this new world, the PC is no longer centre stage. Increasingly, what we’re spending our time doing is communicating, surfing the internet and consuming media online, not running applications like Microsoft Office. To do this, people want inexpensive gadgets that are highly portable, comfortable for lengthy reading or watching videos, simple to use, with long battery life, and always connected to the web.
I think the thing for many consumers is that the PC is still centre stage because that's where we're still at. Okay my wife has an Iphone, but I don't see myself needing one (even though I play with hers at times, and will readily admit it's been handy on occasion).
One of my work colleagues has got herself a tablet (laptop) with a touch screen. Personally I'm just as happy working at my ordinary PC, which doesn't require touching at all.
Anyway, enough of my addiction to the PC - Taylor writes a very intelligent and well-debated article. Get on and read it and forget my blathering.
| 37 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
