Amazon to Authors Guild : "Read My Lips - no new taxes" - Microsoft goes Intel

The WSJ pointed out a potential legal battle around the Kindle ("New Kindle Audio Feature Causes a Stir" - 20090210) : Authors Guild's Paul Aiken denounces the new text-to-speech feature (see "Kindle 2 v. Print") as a copyright law infringement : "They don't have the right to read a book out loud. That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law."

Amazon should know : it owns Audible.com, an audiobook shop which allows downloads for every platform. But today on Amazon.com, the link to downloads on the Audible FAQ page leads to the Kindle homepage. Business is business.

Where does audio book start and audio enabler end ?

The computerized reading of an article cannot be compared to a well edited audiobook. The user experience is generally painful, and if you can get the idea of a text, it is not as if someone actually read it to you*. Text-to-speech media only makes sense for practical reasons (ie you are visually impaired, or you don't have a divergent strabismus bad enough to drive and read your e-mail at the same time).

Let's consider an article you downloaded for 10c on Kindle. You shouldn't have to pay more if you listen to it through the device's text-to-speech enabler, a mere alternative way of accessing the information you paid for. But if the text-to-speech version of the article is say a mp3 file with a life of its own, then there is a DRM issue.

No DRM issue for Stephen King : ever the early adopter for innovative distribution channels, the author proposed "Ur" exclusively on Kindle.

Meanwhile, another champion of the late XXth century seems less successful in embracing the new millenium : Microsoft's lack of vision is clearly becoming an embarrassment, and its latest move in retailing echoes more Intel's admission of failure than Apple's (over)hyped extravaganzas.


* the only case where text-to-speech beats the real thing is for my articles : some can be downloaded in text-to-speech version, and they are as nonsensical to the ear as to the eye, but at least the computerized female voice sounds much sexier than my own (not exactly your James Earl Jones, Barack Obama, or Morgan Freeman... rather inaudible dot com).

Sekai, AirTag, AirFlag, AirBag and Social Net Walking

I just read an article by Joel de Rosnay about "clickable environments"*, which may introduce some confusion between Tonchidot's "air tagging" concept (the Sekai Camera / "world camera" application for iPhone, quite popular in Japan since last autumn, marketed as a "social tagging device") and the AIRTAG brand (a French NFC enabler targeting retailers and service companies).
Mentioning the risks of such intrusive technologies, Rosnay made a pun on "clickable" and "flicable" : in French, "flic" means "cop" and "fliquer" could be translated as "to control, watch and monitor the Big Brother way".

As a matter of fact, we are bound to see at least two killer apps beyond the usual location based cloud marketing fantasies :

- I want to remain as far as I can from this person / kind or people / person in this kind of mood / friend with "leave me alone" Facebook status... (variations : I'll never set foot in this restaurant again / don't even think about dropping your car at the following places / Celtic fans are not welcome in this Rangers joint...) : let's call that an "AirFlag".

- Leave me alone. When I'm roaming IRL, I don't feel like drowning in a syrupy cloud. I am not only opting out but building a protective sphere up around myself : that should be your "AirBag".

Safer social netwalking ?




* "L’environnement cliquable : une virtualité bien réelle"

Kindle 2 v. Print

Kindle has grown up since November 2007 (see "Kindle Kindle little star - take my Word"), carving itself not only a sweet spot in the e-book market, but a new market altogether.

Oprah provided a major boost last autumn but unlike Obama, Amazon couldn't deliver the goods all the way, missing a major holiday season. Jeff Bezos introduced yesterday the much anticipated 2.0 version : same buckled-up business model, same price ($359), but Kindle is now slenderer than an iPhone, it can synchronize with other devices, and it can read (text-to-speech features).

There's much talk about competition with other devices (from Apple to Sony, from handsets to notebooks...), or multidevice text delivery platforms (ie shortcovers, launching later this month), but less about coopetition with content providers at a time when most newspapers are struggling. Many closed shops, others give up printing (ie The Christian Science Monitor didn't even wait for Election Day), others try repositioning while downsizing (ie Newsweek). Did I notice that Kindle added more shades of grey, to enhance the reading experience when you come across a picture or say an ad ?

Amazon is revisiting its relationships with key partners as well as with prosumers, inviting users to submit video comments, joining the self-publishing wave with an improved Digital Text Platform that will benefit both the company beyond the Kindle...

Like Google, Amazon can leverage on a killer combo of comprehensive customer knowledge management and key monetizing tools (AdSense, online sales).

License IV

France went for a hybrid or double-stage solution to their 3G dilemma : since no 4th operator could enter the market without a ticket discount for all players (see "3G license part III - France's fourth wedding or a funeral ?"), the Government and NRA ARCEP decided to split the remaining spectrum.

The potential new entrant will get 5 MHz of 2.1 GHz + 5 MHz of 900 MHz (call for tender expected by EOY 2009), and lawmakers will discuss about what to do of the last 10 MHz of 2.1 GHz, probably putting back incumbents in the loop (friendly auction ?), and about how much this license will cost. I guess a little bit more than the EUR 10,000 a year needed for a Licence IV, which allows bars to sell alcohol without dishes (I mean dishes for food, not for satellite access).

The almost concomitant consultation about 4G allows incumbents to fry some fish or remain one step ahead. Analogic TV spectrum (the 2.6 GHz and 790-862 MHz bands favored by LTE) will be freed in November 2011.

An ambitious new entrant should position itself on both 3G and 4G, as well as on the fixed broadband last mile, where ARCEP is carefully monitoring the development of FTTH / FTTO : trials are under way (until March 31st), and a precise regulatory framework will be published before this summer.

Without a claim by Iliad/Free, the Regulator wouldn't have reserved 3M numbers starting with 06 for the new entrant, who would then have mostly to rely on 07 numbers, soon to be devoted to the same purpose.

Strong of more than 4M subscribers and on the way to 5M by EOY 2011, Iliad-Free remains the front runner and main lobbyist for the 4th license. The company already brought major disruptions to the French market, starting with their ISP business model as none Networks, and most dramatically by introducing the successful home "box" concept, now implemented by all incumbents (Orange Livebox, SFR Box, Bouygues Bbox). In an agressive lobbying campaign, Free announced 1,000 euros savings per year per household with 3 mobile subscriptions. With brand new pipes to fill, unlimited offers seem likely.

But it may take a new and wealthy partner (not a commodity nowadays) to build the said pipes : optic fibers were already a major challenge on the fixed access with a EUR 1bn CAPEX planned by 2012, but covering a country as geographically challenging as France with a 3G network is quite another.

That, or another disruptive "none Networks" model... not to mention "other networks" : Free already holds the only national WiMAX license*.

Or "another player", or course. Foreign (ie Orascom and the usual suspect...), national (some day, Carlyle will have to monetize Numericable's 4M subs), or more probably a combo of the two. But the deepest pockets could hesitate between player #4 and player #3, should Martin Bouygues seize the opportunity of this reshuffle to sell its mobile arm.

Yet another scenario ? No one goes for the network. Incumbents won't accept too cheap a price tag nor too loose coverage obligations for the new entrant... even if Bouygues Telecom was not precisely crushed for being behind schedule.

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addendum 20090205

The price tag is eventually EUR 206M per 5MHz, similar to the 619M paid by each incumbent for their 15MHz load. Free may only take 5MHz, but the Government reminded the audience the existence of coverage obligations, insisting on a contribution for rural areas...