I see through you: City of Sin, Screens, and Smartpagers

Remember that old 3D classic "Avatar"? Now Navis can say "I see through you" instead of "I see you" on Hisense's latest see-through 3D TV.

CES 2013 is all about screens, and it starts on your wrist. I wonder if Amazon will try to sell haikus on this mini ebook reader:

Pebble's e-paper watch for iPhone and Android does look like a gizmo from the 90s, some sort of Bluetooth-enabled smartpager, but the biggest story about it is the way it was crowdfunded on Kickstarter, smashing the $100k goal and raising $10M within days. 85,000 units have been ordered before the CES, more to come.

Does your handset require a remote control that works on Bluetooth? That's another story:


Moving on to some bigger screens: how do you like your OLED TV? 4K (Panasonic)? 4K and Ultra HD (Sony)? Curved (Samsung - nothing as sexy as its "Samsung Flexible AMOLED" of course -, LG)? Multi-view (Samsung again)?

Sharing your screen, that's also possible on the Lenovo IdeaCentre Table PC, a touch table that may host interesting game applications in a near future.

Nevermind the fingerprints, the dust, or even water. One year after HzO Waterblock, Huawei demonstrated a waterproof Ascend series (Ascend Mate, Ascend D2). I'm still in shock to see a smartphone, with all its connectivity slots open, take a dive and come out just fine.

And how about this schizophrenic Asus Transformer AiO? An Android tablet taking off from your Windows 8 desktop? Will an iPad spin off from it? An Apple, wrapped in a Google, inside an Microsoft?

I still don't know what to make of the Firefox OS (showcased in Vegas). A Plan B for Android makes sense (I'm not even mentioning iOS), and it's nice to start in Brazil, but can the Mozilla ecosystem grow that big?

SmartTVs, smartphones, smartwatches... it all sounds like logistics these days, more about fine tuning delivering processes than about delivering new goods.

Still better than last year's shark lawyer frenzies.

mot-bile 2013

iPad me-too: an iPad Mini to stop the iBleeding?

With the iPad Mini, Apple catches up with rivals Samsung (Galaxy Tab 7.7), Google (Google Nexus 7), Amazon (Kindle Fire, also 7 inch screen), or Barnes & Noble (Nook, also 7 inch). As usual, connectivity comes second: WiFi enabled devices arrive before the 3-4G gizmos (TTM not specified for LTE).

At least, iPad mini is released before the Microsoft Surface 7 inch, for a good reason: it has not even been announced yet.

So Tim Cook is mocking at Microsoft, a company from the past. Steve Jobs was mocking at 7 inch tablets not so long ago, but that was a time when Apple was well ahead of the pack.

According to Strategy Analytics, Android claimed 41% of the tablet market on Q3 2012, up from 29.2% one year earlier, while Apple iOS dropped from 64.5 to 56.7%. Actually both are much lower, since some players don't disclose their sales figures, most notably Amazon, who will probably open up sooner or later anyway: Amazon is about distribution, not into OS.

Launching iPad Mini looks more defensive than proactive. The market leader was condemned to cover all bases. Now what's expected from a cultural leader reaches far beyond that.
 
mot-bile 2012

Amazon, Facebook Smartphones? Who cares for Nokia Siemens Networks?

The coming holiday season is strategic for tablet market shares, and that's one of the main reasons why Apple blocked the Samsung Galaxy Tabs in key countries. Cupertino lawyers didn't even try to stop Amazon's Kindle Fire in spite of its vague iPhone 1G design: this low cost gizmo is not a direct competitor, it contributes to democratize the tablet format, and by contrast enhances the coolness of iPad in places where Galaxy's not available.

If the commoditization of tablets will take more time than it did for smartphones, it won't take ages either. Apple obviously intends to milk the cow as long as it can, and to make sure it doesn't miss the next wave. Meanwhile, Samsung doesn't seem to make the most of its leadership in bigger screens because what Smart TV needs is a leader in value aggregation. Unless your TV remains a dumb screen and your smartbox grows wings.

Smartphones will keep getting smarter, but frankly I don't care if Facebook, Amazon, and the countless players rumored to work on them launch one or not.

I care for the 17,000 people kindly fired by Nokia Siemens Networks by the end of next year, a measure shamelessly presented as a "new strategy" ("Nokia Siemens Networks puts mobile broadband and services at the heart of its strategy; initiates restructuring to maintain long-term competitiveness and improve profitability").

Fair enough, networks have never been sexy in this sector. Except maybe when there were more base stations than mobile subscribers, and when handsets were bigger than Macintoshes. But NSN can sound as attractive as SNS, and if it really wants to put "services at the heart of its strategy", all it has to do is to rephrase its press release.

I'd suggest: "Introducing "Newstrategization", our latest killer app".

mot-bile 2011

HomePlus subway virtual store - 2011 Cannes Lions

Cheil Worldwide won the Media Grand Prix at the 2011 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival of Creativity for its amazing HomePlus campaign in Seoul subway, three years after claiming a bronze award for an outdoor advertising campaign "Plus to your life - HomePlus" with the same customer (Samsung Tesco).

Pushing to new levels the now decade-old barcode mobile advertising concept, "Homeplus Subway Virtual Store" transforms a subway station into a replica of supermarket where commuters can register and order online with their smartphone. This is not only spectacular and smart, but efficient : the number of subscribers and the turnover skyrocketed, helping the retailer overtake Emart as the national leader in online sales* :



Of course, you don't want to miss your subway and you won't fill your virtual cart through this sometimes tedious process, but you can just load the first items and quietly finish shopping on the way home.

Expect more of these. I already can see Amazon setting up his own virtual libraries near rival brick and mortar shops...

mot-bile 2011

* a key channel in Korea, see "Online sales become the first distribution channel in Korea - or is door-to-door back ?"

Korea Telecom Qooks ebooks

mot-bile 2010 - In spite of a long literary tradition, Koreans are not big readers. Worse : in 2009, 90% of Korean publishers didn't print any new book.

Through the Korea Electronic Publishing Association, the Ministry of Culture is betting on ebooks to revive the habit (target : 100,000 ebooks per year). Kyobo Book estimates the Korean market at about KRW 1 tn (over USD 900) EOY 2010 and KRW 2.4 tn EOY 2012.

The Ministries of Knowledge Economy and Education are joining this national effort, which will also benefit local manufacturers : those guys didn't wait for the local market to do something (ie Samsung Papyrus, iRiver Story), but the issue became sensible after the launch of the iPhone, and the iPad buzz.

Harmonizing the 40 or so existing distribution platforms is a key factor of success, and the association recently held an "e-publication standardization forum" at the Korean Education & Research Information Service (KERIS).

Education is key in a country where families spend fortunes to help their kids survive one of the most competitive education systems in the world.

Precisely, for its first ebook distribution partners, Korea Telecom picked Woongjin Thinkbig, Inc., which holds a strong position in private tutoring text books, and Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd., which also has a specialization in educational contents.

The funny thing about the service is the brand : we've already mentioned Qook, KT's umbrella brand for home services. "eBook cafe / Book Cafe" makes sense because book cafes are getting popular in Korea. But "QOOK Book Cafe" bookcafe.qook.co.kr) sounds like the Java hub for rogue accountants.

iAdMobsters and multitaskers

Apple will take a 40% for all ads on its new advertising platform : iAd.

Google will gobble AdMob (whose moto happens to be "Enriching Mobile") with the benediction of regulators on the grounds that Quattro Wireless* + iAd = Google left some room to whatever's left of competitors.

iAd focuses on in-App advertising across iPhone, iPad*, and iWhatevercomesnext. Steve Jobs estimates the potential at 1 billion ad impressions per day on existing Apple devices.

Google focuses on everywhere, including iPad, iPhone, and iPutaspellonyou. It's been a long time since Big G ditched that billboard advertising "over 1 billion burgers served".

But iPhone OS 4 also offers improvements in multitasking, a word Cupertino definitely seems to be getting a grasp on.

mot-bile 2010

* snatched by Apple last January (see "SK Telecom pushes Android"). Google's purchase of AdMob last September has not been okayed yet.
** which eventually sold 450,000 units in 5 days instead of the 700,000 on day one earlier outoftheballparked by a fan (see "iFad's deliberate marketing blur") - anyway a good score. More significant : 600,000 ebooks and 3.5 M apps downloaded (iPad apps store claims 3,500 applications).

iFad's deliberate marketing blur - Naver / Livedoor

With 700,000 units sold on launch day including pre-orders (according to Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray), iPad already found its spot on the market. Apple hypists fueled this early success, but other segments may follow, including technophobe seniors who are neither interested in computing nor in exotic web browsing.

Other players targeted this segment, but the Orange Hello and Orange Tabbee proposition, for instance, is clear a deterrent for hypists (see "Orange Hello, is it me you're looking for ?"). Why ? Because it is marketed around functionality-segment duos that mirror the very classic engineer-marketer binome.

The smartest thing about the iFad is the deliberate marketing blur : Apple refuses to build artificial segmentations and prefers to let the market decide, hoping the device will find more niches than initially thought. But the manufacturer pushes the concept with a clearly identified "software-level warranty" to help the hardware concept look more sustainable in the potential purchaser's mind : iPad v1.0 is not the best tablet*, just like iPod was not the best PMP or iPhone the best smartphone, but just like iTunes came from Apple computers to secure the launch of iPod, iPod music platform served as a base for the iPhone, and iPhone apps are paving the way for the iPad.

So if the iPad is not a category killer per se, it could help kill artificial categories, and tear down artificial walls.

Just one word about NHN / Naver, who would be about to snatch the Livedoor portal and its 30 M subs put on the market by LDH Corp (formerly Livedoor Holdings). It reminds me of the Daum / Lycos deal a long time ago. Korea gains an entry point in Japan the same way it did in the US : in a very traditional way. And I hope Naver has bigger plans than Daum. For instance, I wonder which role Naver, as it enters a new country using non-latine alphabet / characters, intends to play in the promising hosting business related to Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA).

mot-bile 2010

* and certainly not the best ebook : too heavy, UI and screennot optimized for reading...

Hey kids, Apple is educating the market for iPad

mot-bile 2009 - Traditionally, ebook readers have been marketed for an elite of early adopters not only interested in high-tech but also in books.

With its Kindle, Amazon focused on "human" readers, making the technology as transparent as possible, talking about books instead of gizmos, and widening the base all of a sudden.

For its iPad, Apple seems to be focusing on kids and education (beyond, of course, the iMac / iPod / iPhone followers). Neither reinventing the old chalk tablet nor the old "kids as prescriptors" mantra : simply considering an important part of the edition ecosystem snubbed by rivals, a cornerstone of familial and societal spheres.

You're going to hear a lot about school textbooks, lessons, ebooks for kids, animated mangas and cartoons, and even do-it-yourself cartoons. About more serious stuff of course, but somewhere, Jeff Bezos must wonder why his marketing teams didn't venture beyond the standard Amazon customer.

Apple Tablet, or iSlate, or Google Whatever

What's in a domain name ? When a company takes an URL it's not necessarily to use it*. It can be a defensive move, for instance to limit noise around one of its brands.

Tracking domain names for major corporations is now part of day to day routine when you are into business intelligence, that's the reason why companies who want to remain discreet use a proxy. Arnold Kim just reignited rumors about an Apple Tablet to be launched early next year ("Apple Purchased iSlate.com in 2007. Apple's New Tablet Called iSlate?" - MacRumors.com 20091224), but iSlate happens to be the name of an Apple Store app...

... which doesn't change anything : the best way to protect a brand is to use it, and iSlate would make a nice brand to rival the "tablet" label (I can't see Apple marketing a "tablet device" any more than I can see it mention "PC" for its own devices).

Anyway Apple needs to propose a solution for scribblers, sketchers, and their readers. Google has yet to join the netbook party, but I can't see Google NOT working on some android thing or another in that field, and not just to fill the fabled 20 percent time.

ebooks, tablets, and related mobile devices are nothing new but they are bound to have a better decade than the one which is about to end.

mot-bile 2009

* I recently got rid of the bulk I owned after my registrar tripled the annual fees, and some have been snatched right away but that's OK.

UPDATE 20100118

Apple is expected to announce the entertainment gizmo (ebook, movies, music...) in an event on January 27th.

Mating season for media : Steve & Ruppert / Time Inc, Conde Nast, Hearst & Meredith

Gossip of the day : Hearst heart Time heart Meredith heart Conde Nast. It heard it through the newsvine, or rather the NYT : "Group of Magazine Publishers Is Said to Be Building an Online Newsstand", the fabled "iTunes for magazines". The New York Times itself being an item on the Amazon Kindle platform*.

The previous day, the same NYT had a story about that flirt between Murdoch and Balmer : jealous of Google's curves, Baldy would like to keep the moghul's treasures for himself : only Bing would be able to reach inside its pages**.

In Korea, courting may turn predatorial : antitrust laws allow press groups to develop bigger TV channels. Big fishs are literally venturing into / vulturing around the pond.

The hate / love relationship between traditional media and new media remains in this transitional phase when nothing seems to be granted, even for major stars. No one seems to be sustainably bankable.

So major studios people tend to cling to behaviors they feel comfortable with : investing in the latest technologies to appear up to date, promising blockbusters with Ocean's Twenty Six castings... but they still have no script, no storyboard, and no director whatsoever.

So what they're basically trying to do is to put everybody together for one night in some sort of Kodak Theater, betting on favorable buzz outside and last minute deals inside, forcing smiles and spotlights to the point no outsider may notice the collection of butcher knives.


mot-bile 2009

* Speaking of platforms and music : Brian Stelter also mentions in his article YouTube's Vevo music video platform.
** "News Corp. Weighs an Exclusive Alliance With Bing" (NYT - 20091124)

Gizmo5 found its Google Voice

Skype owners were considering snatching Gizmo5 as a B plan, should the legal matters with founders turn nasty.

Turns out Gizmo5 had a G plan : Google showed them the money, made a star of founder Michael Robertson, and yes, "Google Welcomes Gizmo5".

Gizmo5 welcomes visitors on its website with the less enthusiastic "Gizmo5 Has Been Acquired by Google". Note that "New user signup has been suspended and will return when we re-launch" Gizmoogle6.

Now that it owns a PSTN entry point, Google Voice will probably make use of its Dark Force : the fabled "dark fiber" it's been piling up and laying out everywhere.

Now let's see how cellcos swallow this VoIP doubledecker.

2010 should be an interesting year for anti-Big G movements (i.e. in the book section, Google may face a global front after reaching an agreement with the US Authors Guild).

mot-bile 2009

UPDATE 20100219

See this video from "Google Voice, Explained" (Google Voice official blog 20100219) :

In Google times, where are the operators ?

Google and Verizon Wireless will release several Android devices every year, starting with two in 2009 (courtesy HTC and Motorola), contributing to a global roaster of 18 gizmos for this OS.

Microsoft announced 30 Windows Mobile 6.5 devices by EOY 2009. It speaks volumes of Redmond's intentions to remain ahead of Apple in smartphones. Or to remain in smartphones altogether.

Ever the sexier BlackBerry announced the Storm of the century and new Curves.

Meanwhile, Kindle goes global : Amazon intends to become the worldwide cultural leader before Apple makes its splash in the ebook reader / app space.

We're talking platforms and OS but Amazon is into grocery, Google into advertising, Microsoft into healthcare (a cash cow for antivirus labs). BlackBerry ? A "manufactoperator" which somehow succeeded in opening itself without losing its consistency.

Nokia "pushes" Symbian as a Wikipedia style fundation, Palm "WebOS" as a more or less open platform (open as in up for grabs ?)... but the mojo seems to belong to the Open Handset Alliance, the movement supporting Android. Verizon Wireless is not even a member, and SonyEricsson could be jumping on board anytime soon, along with other nondescript manufacturers and operators.

The OS wars are not over. They're simply getting more boring. Differenciation will at last converge towards that forsaken player, the user.

Gotcha ! Google learns to read with reCAPTCHA

If you leave a comment on this page, chances are you'll face a CAPTCHA box. This "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart" prevents robots from spamming. If you pass the test, you'll face a human being, Yours Truly. And since my platform is Blogger (a Google unit), CAPTCHA provider will eventually be reCATCHA, the company purchased by Google yesterday.

Each time Microsoft or Google snatches a start-up, conspiration theorists try to decypher the CAPTCHA, as in "Completely Automated Private Takeover to tear Competitors and Humans Apart".

This time, Google provides the key on its blog* : they need the technology to capture our own know how in text recognition for its own document scanning processes, most notably for Google Books, which recently claimed a spectacular partnership with one of its former opponents, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

Who knows ? The system could also boost other applications in the long run... Writing to speech ? At times I'd love to find a tool to decypher my own scribbles.




* "Teaching computers to read: Google acquires reCAPTCHA" (20090916) :

" Computers find it hard to recognize these words because the ink and paper have degraded over time, but by typing them in as a CAPTCHA, crowds teach computers to read the scanned text"

ADDENDUM 20090919

Since this post received yesterday a visit from Carnegie Mellon Algorithms and Complexity Theory Group, I shall add, for full recognition, that reCAPTCHA happens to be a spinoff of Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Science Department.

News BioRhythms

Before the introduction of printing in Europe by Guthenberg, people would travel for books. Then books could multiply, move and reach different readers in different locations. Now you don't even need paper and anyone can consult any priceless ancient manuscript from anywhere without fear of damaging it*.

Earlier this year, there was a exhibition in the library of Florence's Convento di San Marco on the process of book making, featuring beautiful objects and illuminations. I remember thinking, as I moved from one marvel of patience to another, about how people would look at a newspaper press a few years from now.

Doesn't it already seem like a black and white scene from Citizen Cane ? The journalist getting his scoop, writing it down, submitting it to the chief editor, the prints running like crazy, a headline splashing on a newstand, yelled by a street vendor...

Scenes from last millenium.

The future of newspaper definitely looks like "more news and less paper".

Many players are folding their last issues, and folding, period. The sector had been looking for new business models for years when depression struck, precipitating bankruptcies in an already fragile ecosystem.

Sourcing, writing, editing, printing, distributing, advertising... now it's less a linear value chain than a shape shifting value cloud. But there's still value out there, be it in relevance, ergonomy, utility, actionability, exclusivity, analysis / insights / advice, local, reassurance, trust, fun... or why not, the quality of the paper (actually, that's the reason why there's still a thriving market - readers and advertisers - for certain magazines).

Likewise, brands are more often scattered among media, platforms, authors, journalists, and contributors who can even be anonymous members of a popular online forum. With a high churn rate because things and people tend to come out of fad more quickly by the day. Any local newspaper can get its 15 Warholian minutes of fame because say, their cute kitten rescued from a fire in Armpit, TN has been over-retwitted as a scoop of michaeljacksonian magnitude.

Reading has become a multimedia experience with pop-ups, background music, rollover images... you start reading an article and end up watching a movie while purchasing virtual pop-corn for your tamagotchi.

Sometimes, the article you're reading is being edited under your very eyes. Like that page devoted to post-elections unrests in Iran on HuffPost, or DemConWatch's SuperDelegate list, which I consulted about every other minute last year.

News and hoaxes are everywhere, and each individual has what I call his or her own "News BioRhythm" : depending on the context you consume more or less but you somehow have to be fed at certain moments of the day.

The future of newspaper ? The term will more often cover the medium instead of the media brand : you won't be talking about the NYT nor the WSJ, but about your favorite epaper smartphone application, your favorite dedicated device (ie your Kindle, your foldable screen...), where you chose to consult the news.

We all have tools to arrange our own newspapers, but that's not necessarily what you want nor need. I started with My Yahoo! around 1995-96 but quickly switched to a more pervasive browsing mode. There are usually about 30 sites always on on my screen - half of which about news, news gathering, or keeping track of news I read.

I know, I have a problem with my NBR... I should twit my shrink about it (he takes only $13.59 + taxes per character).


* These days, you should fear more for your dutifully purchased ebook (see "Kindle's Total Recall")
---
initally published on blogules.

Plastic Logic Ltd on AT&T, a Kindle for pros ?

Barnes & Nobles is claiming its leadership back as the leading library in the ebook arena. After all, its Bookstore app is the first of its kind in App Store downloads, and it's about to cash in after purchasing Fictionwise. ebooks already represent over 4% of book sales, and CAGR means we will soon enter into over 10% territories, meaning the real mass market thing.

B&N eBoosktore (bn.com/ebooks) proposes 700,000 titles, more than twice Amazon's catalog... not to mention Google's public domain books (over half a million titles). But Barnes & Nobles doesn't propose a double user generated content platform : Amazon competes with classic editors (Booksurge) as well as with such pure players as Lulu.com (CreateSpace).

eReader is available on such smartphone platforms as Blackberry or iPhone. New devices keep coming out of the pipe if not on the shelves yet.

B&N will be exclusive provider for Plastic Logic's eReader (plastic display, electronic ink, touchscreen, 8.5 x 11 x .25 inches - see plasticlogic.com). This newcomer, founded and run by senior managers and researchers from the PC world (HP for CEO Richard Archuleta, Hitachi for Pr Henning Sirringhaus...), supported by big names in VC (including Intel and Siemens), and boasting locations in California (not far from Big G in Mountain View), UK (Cambridge), and Germany (Dresden) is also discussing with all press groups to sex up its big screen.

But novels or newspapers are not the key content here : the idea is to give business users a new gizmo to manipulate all kinds of documents and presentations (PDF, Word, Excel, PPT...) on the go. Thus the touch screen and the wireless connectivity. I guess the idea is to build a niche between classic ebook readers and Tablet PCs.

Trials with AT&T are about to start, targeting a commercial launch "early 2010".

Kindle's Total Recall

If wonder if Amazon fully considered the pros and cons of their embarrassing Orwellian moment : remotely deleting "1984" or "Animal Farm" ebooks was a perfect proof of concept for content providers, but a terrible PR operation for consumers.

From the start (see "Kindle Kindle little star - take my Word"), the retailer seemed to be targeting partners rather than than endusers. And here again, the message is more meant for publishers : look, I control the value chain and have the capacity to fight piracy... stop being afraid and come on board !

If Amazon gave some consideration to its other customers, it would prepare a nice PR campaign instead, providing some time to their customers, and some buzz to a much wider audience. And why not, a nice promotion on top of it.

But no. They decided to go for the automatic, intrusive option.

This goes much further than a product recall : it means that what you purchased is not your own, including the device. Somehow, your Kindle is not your own.

ADDENDUM 20090723

An Apology from Amazon

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our "solution" to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com


NB: no kindling ?

Big Screen Kindles and Papyrus

Kindle DX joins Amazon's Kindle family. It's bigger (9.7 inch screen), smarter (screen rotation, 4 GB memory), and of course pricier ($ 489).

Comfier too, if you want to read magazines, newspapers, documents with images. But not that much if you intend to carry it everywhere. This one will probably remain at home most of the time, and may not even make it there if you already own a tablet PC.

I expected something more disruptive. Say a really big screen, for real newspapers... the foldable kind of Kindle. Technology is there, but short term marketability remains another story... Keep an eye on Amazon labs for that one.

Anyway, this newcomer will make such competitors as the Samsung Papyrus look smaller. But a no-frills, no-connectivity, A5, half a GB memory ebook reader can succeed if it comes at half the price.


The CNET video on Kindle DX :

Kindle for iPhone (no iRead for iReader yet)

Kindle for iPhone* is a non-event.

From the beginning, the Kindle device was meant as a proof of concept for the Amazon platform (see "Kindle Kindle little star - take my Word" - 20071121**).

Amazon is into distribution, not hardware. Amazon v. Apple is more about coopetition than competition, Kindle v. iPhone more about complementalness than substitution.

Let's make both Jeff and Steve happy, and let's say you own both a Kindle and an iPhone : you don't carry your Kindle all the time, but now you are definitely more likely to purchase a new book, and if you can't wait you to have a peek, you can even read the first chapters on your way back home, before Whispersyncing it to your most comfortable reader.

I could bullpooh you for hours about other fascinating seamless user experiences, but I'll leave that to people who are paid for it.

Besides, Amazon is pushing hard Kindle the platform to set the standard, and the device comes only third after reach and speed. Even early adopters are feeling the pinch right now, so surfing on the iWave makes more sense to Bezos than waiting for the next Schumpeterian tsunami (if any).

And oh, within iPhone's reach, if your Kindle want to have a chat with your iPod Touch, that's perfectly okay, but they can't sing along yet (Kindle plays MP3, and poorly). Well, I guess neither of the two shopkeepers are minding right now...

This buddyship ain't no honeymoon, after all.

And who knows ? If tomorrow Apple happens to launch iRead for iReader...


* "Amazon Brings Kindle to iPhone" (20090404 PC World)

** and following episodes, including "Kindle 2 v. Print" (20090210). BTW, Amazon didn't go all the way in the fight for text-to-speech.

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).

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).