[28th Feb '10 update - click here for a more sane version written by @johnbattelle]I'm about to do a keynote at a wireless carrier's WASP event and decided to copy and paste the following rant I wrote on my mobile whilst stuck in traffic on the way here. The event running a few mins late. Here's goes nothing - don't care about grammar and spelling right now :) Note: I will update this with links and better formatting later - Enjoy and/or cringe;
Content providers, owners and specifically publishers need to wake up!
Consumers are changing... They want content they want! ...specific and personalized to them...and very specific on a song by song basis, a book by book basis, and now with newspapers/magazines; I want my newspaper/magazine on an article by article subscription or micropayment basis...
I want the Apple iTunes model applied to newspaper and magazine literature on my Amazon Kindle - i.e. individual track/episode purchasing! I don't want to subscribe to the ENTIRE newspaper/magazine... I don't want the letters to editor section... I don't want the Lifestyle section! Example: when I subscribe to the Daily Mail on my Kindle... I don't want the entire newspaper...it irritates me! I think Daily Mail does awesome premiere league soccer coverage but the LA Times publishes a great tech section and the New York times business section works best for me!
Today, on my Kindle or Nook, I have to subscribe to the full newspaper or magazine... Haven't we been here before? Remember the music business before iTunes and the 99c a track? When we were forced to by the entire LP, cassette or CD...even though we only wanted that one or two great tracks...! I don't want the entire Newsweek magazine...I only want to pay for the columns written by Fareed Zakira and I would be willing to pay 99c a month to tap into his continuous newsfeed/opinion feed...ONLY!
Everyone's arguing about making content free or not... The argument isn't about buying the book or the newspaper! The strategic focus should be on drip based and very modular subscription capability...with dynamic and tag'able content that drives upsell revenue! Period! It would be like mixing the 99c/track iTunes model up with the Google Adsense model and mobile application stores. Stop thinking in globs and force feeding crap down users throats...I don't want to read your "letters to the editor" or your "horoscopes"! ALL your content is not great and not valuable TO ME! Atomise yourself for goodness sake - there's more revenue in micro subscription payments than there is in the total newspaper/magazine product sku!
The business model philosophy is; THE CONSUMER, ME AND YOU, HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE POWERFUL IN THE HISTORY OF COMMERCE...AND IF YOU DON'T MEET OUR EXPECTATIONS...WE WILL LEAVE YOU! If you don't create great news...we'll capture it (i.e. citizen journalism - example; CNN iReport)... If you don't write great news articles...we'll blog about it... If you sell a crap product we'll video tape how crappy it is and everyone globally can see it... We want granular choice and WE WILL PAY BECAUSE WE ARE INHERENTLY GOOD NOT EVIL! Your traditional overheads should not leak into our world...nevermind the fact that if you got your heads out the sand/clouds you may find a positive revenue infliction rejuventation and the Longtail whipping around, personified, in your old archived content!
The business model is longtail + social + subscription + content data structures/tagging/geo/feeds (semantic web) + mobile application stores + (something like Google OpenSocial) x the 99c a track/30% app store margin biz model + easy method of payment
Everyone's arguing about making content free or not... The argument isn't about buying the book or the newspaper! The strategic focus should be on drip based and very modular subscription capability...with dynamic and tag'able content that drives upsell revenue! Period! It would be like mixing the 99c/track iTunes model up with the Google Adsense model and mobile application stores. Stop thinking in globs and force feeding crap down users throats...I don't want to read your "letters to the editor" or your "horoscopes"! ALL your content is not great and not valuable TO ME! Atomise yourself for goodness sake - there's more revenue in micro subscription payments than there is in the total newspaper/magazine product sku!
The business model philosophy is; THE CONSUMER, ME AND YOU, HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE POWERFUL IN THE HISTORY OF COMMERCE...AND IF YOU DON'T MEET OUR EXPECTATIONS...WE WILL LEAVE YOU! If you don't create great news...we'll capture it (i.e. citizen journalism - example; CNN iReport)... If you don't write great news articles...we'll blog about it... If you sell a crap product we'll video tape how crappy it is and everyone globally can see it... We want granular choice and WE WILL PAY BECAUSE WE ARE INHERENTLY GOOD NOT EVIL! Your traditional overheads should not leak into our world...nevermind the fact that if you got your heads out the sand/clouds you may find a positive revenue infliction rejuventation and the Longtail whipping around, personified, in your old archived content!
The business model is longtail + social + subscription + content data structures/tagging/geo/feeds (semantic web) + mobile application stores + (something like Google OpenSocial) x the 99c a track/30% app store margin biz model + easy method of payment
This means a radical change in business model and views on content valuations...and who owns the user...and who bills...and who owns the identity...and who owns the device...and who the affiliate is...and who the last mile and carrier is...and who owns the bank account/facility...and which currency...and where?
There will be the Apple closed fashion oriented model...and then there will be the free and open model... Both will have to be embraced!
WASP's are about to enter an era of mass potential and revenue possibilities... Look at just the application marketplaces and how that's evolving... The reach it gives you and the ease of application rapid development, consumption and data Protection...and billing!
But...WASP'S...you will have to start adapting and start understanding where the users are and how their behaviour patterns are changing...AND MOST IMPORTANTLY HOW DEVICES THAT ARE CONNECTED ARE PROLIFERATING AND CHANGING... THE AGE OF THE MOBILE "PHONE" IS DEAD...THE AGE OF THE WIRELESSLY CONNECTED DEVICE IS UPON US! THAT THING THAT FITS JUST BETWEEN THE TRADITIONAL PHONE AND THE TRADITIONAL LAPTOP OR COMPUTER...HAVING THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS! ...APPLE'S IPAD IS HUGE! WHY? NOT TECHNOLOGICALLY BUT TAKE A LOOK AT THE PLATFORM/ECOSYSTEM IT CREATES...LOOK AT HOW IT WILL AFFECT USER CONTENT CONSUMPTION... WATCH HOW IT WILL RUN SMACK BAM INTO HOLLYWOOD AND ALL OTHER TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING/MEDIA HOUSES! (I just hope and pray that they don't simply render dead mags and news on a sexy device - please media companies...embrace open and don't repeat my current Kindle experience!)
We are seeing an evolution of application stores connected to mobile devices...each carrier involved and mobile manufacturer getting in and content owner...and and and... all this creating silos again...SOMEBODY PLEASE PUBLISH THE OPEN-SOCIAL TYPE API'S FOR APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT, INTEGRATION AND RENDERING OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS ACROSS ALL CARRIER/PHONE MANUFACTURER'S/MOBILE OS/ ETC. APPLICATION STORES...THEN I WANT THE GOOGLE ADSENSE CLONE FOR ALL CONTENT RENDERED ON THE IPAD, NOOK AND KINDLE...AND THEN I WANT THE SDK AND API SET FOR WRITING AND RENDERING MY APPLICATIONS RELEVANT TO CONTENT TAGS AND CONTEXT IDENTIFICATION AND TRACKING...AND THEN I WANT AMAZON'S ONE-CLICK-PURCHASE BUTTON CLONED AND AVAILABLE ACROSS ALL CONTENT AND STORES...IF NOT AMAZON THEN I'LL JUST SETTLE FOR TRANSVERSAL PAYPAL MERCHANT AND USER INTEGRATION ENABLED ON A WORD-BY-WORD/TAG-BY-TAG BASIS... P L U E E Z E!
ENOUGH ALREADY STAFFORD - GET UP THERE AND TAP DANCE BOY!
Btw: This Wired tablet app demo is visually very appealing but concerns me a little;
There will be the Apple closed fashion oriented model...and then there will be the free and open model... Both will have to be embraced!
WASP's are about to enter an era of mass potential and revenue possibilities... Look at just the application marketplaces and how that's evolving... The reach it gives you and the ease of application rapid development, consumption and data Protection...and billing!
But...WASP'S...you will have to start adapting and start understanding where the users are and how their behaviour patterns are changing...AND MOST IMPORTANTLY HOW DEVICES THAT ARE CONNECTED ARE PROLIFERATING AND CHANGING... THE AGE OF THE MOBILE "PHONE" IS DEAD...THE AGE OF THE WIRELESSLY CONNECTED DEVICE IS UPON US! THAT THING THAT FITS JUST BETWEEN THE TRADITIONAL PHONE AND THE TRADITIONAL LAPTOP OR COMPUTER...HAVING THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS! ...APPLE'S IPAD IS HUGE! WHY? NOT TECHNOLOGICALLY BUT TAKE A LOOK AT THE PLATFORM/ECOSYSTEM IT CREATES...LOOK AT HOW IT WILL AFFECT USER CONTENT CONSUMPTION... WATCH HOW IT WILL RUN SMACK BAM INTO HOLLYWOOD AND ALL OTHER TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING/MEDIA HOUSES! (I just hope and pray that they don't simply render dead mags and news on a sexy device - please media companies...embrace open and don't repeat my current Kindle experience!)
We are seeing an evolution of application stores connected to mobile devices...each carrier involved and mobile manufacturer getting in and content owner...and and and... all this creating silos again...SOMEBODY PLEASE PUBLISH THE OPEN-SOCIAL TYPE API'S FOR APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT, INTEGRATION AND RENDERING OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS ACROSS ALL CARRIER/PHONE MANUFACTURER'S/MOBILE OS/ ETC. APPLICATION STORES...THEN I WANT THE GOOGLE ADSENSE CLONE FOR ALL CONTENT RENDERED ON THE IPAD, NOOK AND KINDLE...AND THEN I WANT THE SDK AND API SET FOR WRITING AND RENDERING MY APPLICATIONS RELEVANT TO CONTENT TAGS AND CONTEXT IDENTIFICATION AND TRACKING...AND THEN I WANT AMAZON'S ONE-CLICK-PURCHASE BUTTON CLONED AND AVAILABLE ACROSS ALL CONTENT AND STORES...IF NOT AMAZON THEN I'LL JUST SETTLE FOR TRANSVERSAL PAYPAL MERCHANT AND USER INTEGRATION ENABLED ON A WORD-BY-WORD/TAG-BY-TAG BASIS... P L U E E Z E!
ENOUGH ALREADY STAFFORD - GET UP THERE AND TAP DANCE BOY!
Btw: This Wired tablet app demo is visually very appealing but concerns me a little;
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