The Subordination of Browsers, Search, and Links: Will Apps and Mobile Redefine Our Digital Lives?
A recent Atlantic article talks about how the Web is shifting into a subservient role to mobile apps. The implications for strategies are clear.
Apple’s iPhone 4 and iOS4: What Do They Mean for Publishers?
Apple announces a new model iPhone and an updated operating system for all iPhones/iPads/iPod Touch devices. What impact will these new technologies have on publishers?
Trade Publishing and Ebooks: W(h)ither the Supply Chain?
The supply chain around trade publishing is “broken,” according to publishers. But are they what has broken?
Short Stories and Comics: Niche Markets with Core Lessons for STM Publishers
The failure of the traditional music industry has become the standard cautionary tale for content industries adapting to a digital era. But for scholarly publishers, many factors make the music industry a poor comparison. We have more in common with smaller niche markets. Watching their electronic experimentation and new business models may be more informative as we seek new strategies for presenting and selling content.
Four Days with the iPad
Four days with the iPad reveals a landscape of possibilities and some real functionality pros and cons.
The Scholarly iPad — First Impressions, Relevance for Publishers
The iPad is a superb design realization of the tablet computer. But that still leaves the question: “What is it?”
Platform Wars Come to the Book Business
Technological platform wars have taken control of the book business, and publishers are now collateral damage in the fight.
Why the iPad Marks the End of Price Controls for eBooks—and Why Publishers Have Lost
Publishers may have won the pricing war, but the real struggle is now on for users’ attention. Because the iPad is not a dedicated e-book reader there are, unfortunately, many things that users can do with the device other than read books. Unlike the Kindle, where publishers have the device all to themselves iPad users will be able to surf the Web, play games, watch movies, view their photo collections, listen to music, watch TV, send e-mail, work on a presentation, or access over one hundred thousand applications that do any number of distracting things.
Why the iPad Marks the End of Price Controls for eBooks—and Why Publishers Have Won
The iPad moves electronic reading to a multi-function device, marking the end of proprietary interfaces controlling commerce for e-reading.
A Technology Reality Check — The Fable of the Facebook Login
While we continue to explore new and ever-more complex online technologies, the Internet provides a stunning example that for many, the web browser is more than they can handle.
E-reader Petting Zoo: The PSP Brings Us a Menagerie of Toys and Devices
E-reading devices were shown off at the 2010 PSP Annual Meeting. Unfortunately, the iPad probably still dominated the setting, even in abstentia.
Two Updates: Amazon Buys to Build a SuperKindle, Google Parries Aardvark
Amazon and Google respond to competitive moves.
Who Controls Publisher Prices? Amazon Fires the First Shot, Then Forges a Bitter Truce
This weekend Amazon pulled all of MacMillan’s books, both electronic and paper, from their store due to a dispute over eBook pricing policies. Is this the first battle in the war for control of the publishing industry?
Things About the iPad That Already Annoy Me
OK, I’ve read enough — there are 5 things about the iPad that might just annoy me (and others).
The Steve Jobs Commencement Address
This week’s Friday fun — Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford. An inspiring message from one of our true luminaries of innovation.