Online music pricing

As almost always, an interesting story in the Economics Focus section of the latest Economist magazine (hopefully not behind their firewall). For some reason this is one of my favorite sections of the magazine and this story on online music pricing shows why. I am shocked with the idea that people would pay well over $2 per online song, but the idea of different pricing models is definitely a good one. Offering 100 downloads for $25.00 could interest me in a way that current iTunes pricing never will.

But then, I'm the guy who got tapes of his friends' albums when I was young, so I'm probably too far down the curve to be of huge interest to music sellers.

I can't stop playing!

A good story about some of the features of casual games that make them addictive to people. Its not Bejeweled for me, but I totally understand the concept. Of course knowing why probably won't make them any less addictive to us.

Raise a toast on Nov. 9

A bit early, but this excellent story from Reason magazine reminds us all of the incredible events of 20 years ago. For me, the falling of the Berlin Wall, begun on November 9th really represented the end of the Soviet era and the beginning of an incredible transformation of our world into a better place for everyone. So lets mark our calendars and drink a toast on the 20th anniversary of this amazing event.

I want that Honda!

Well, outside of Nokia suing Apple for patent infringement on the iPhone, its not a big news day in mobile, but I love the look of the upcoming Honda CR-Z in this Wired story. I agree with the overall point too, small, fuel-efficient cars in the 80's were better than they are today.

Stargazing

I highly recommend stargazing, even just casually like I do, and here's a good story about how to best enjoy it. I'm blessed with reasonably dark skies at night and an open area for viewing at my home, so just look there.

Battle of the Clouds

This article in the latest Economist does a nice job of summarizing the positions of Microsoft, Google and Apple in the area of cloud computing (possibly only available to subscribers). The key point is that its unlikely that cloud computing will have the same strong network effects we have seem in things like the OS and search, so that there should be room for all 3 to do well, as well as allow for many others.

Ringtones falling

This blurb from a Fierce Wireless review of the recent CTIA show was particularly interesting:

Ringtones, once the biggest revenue-generator of the mobile content vertical, are now little more than an afterthought. Ringtone sales in the U.S. declined from $714 million in 2007 to $541 million in 2008--a 24 percent year-over-year drop--according to research firm SNL Kagan, which says the annual decline is the first ever posted for a U.S. mobile content category. In all, ringtones' share of total U.S. mobile music revenues fell from 80 percent in 2005 to 63 percent in 2008.

SNL Kagan credits the slump to consumers learning to create their own ringtones by side-loading edited MP3 clips to their phones and in turn bypassing operators' direct sales channels. "We're in the middle of a generational shift in terms of how consumers purchase content," said Robb McDaniels, CEO of digital media distribution firm INgrooves, during a Mobile Entertainment Live! conference panel last week. "It's pretty bad right now." So bad, in fact, that McDaniels cracked the panel, titled "View from the Top," should be retitled "View from the Bottom" to more accurately reflect the current state of the music business.

Read more: http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/ctia-it-2009-scorecard-mobile-content#ixzz0URUR1ZV8

I think part of the problem was operators thinking that customers would pay $3.99 for a ringtone when they could buy the whole track for $0.99 if they even bothered to pay for that.

We are all in a hurry

Check out this slideshow of a recent poll on people's experience with the mobile web. Its clear from this that people are expecting an experience comparable to what they get at home and won't tolerate much less. This will be a real challenge going forward, as between network bandwidths and overall phone and site capabilities there is still some way to go.

Smartphone trends

I'm always a fan of the analyst who often miss shifts in the market with their methods of just assuming things will continue, but there are exceptions. I think Seybold stands out from the crowd with posts like this that are right on. This is their value, in being able to step back a bit and point out the obvious when the CEO's are spouting some conventional wisdom.

Nokia losing smartphone marketshare

Nokia announced a huge loss today and though the numbers are primarily driven by their Nokia Siemens business, the bigger news is their marketshare loss in smartphones. Given that the overall mobile market is moving strongly in the direction of smartphones and that both RIM and Apple have only just begun their expansion outside of North America, this could bode ill for Nokia overall.

Do What Matters to You

I'm not a mushy guy or have much tolerance for such things, so was unsure of this article for a bit, but the essence of it is right on especially at the end. Given my own position today, I found it helpful to hear these words and the very important message it sends. Its why I love living when we do that we can do what matters to us.

You will like Google Wave

Great story from Gizmondo on Google's upcoming plans for Wave and related products, enjoy.

Great take on future of mobile apps

This story is a great place to start as it really does an excellent job of capturing some of the state of the industry, http://www.andrewseybold.com/commentary.asp?ID=272. I'm on Mr. Seybold's side on this discussion and think that this is why there are great opportunities for upstarts to still make an impact in the field, despite the dominance of many large players.

Back on

Well its been several crazy months, during which I decided not to keep posting, but things have changed and its time to try again. This will become more mobile industry focused as that's been my focus and I have time now to keep up with much that's happening. Lets see how she goes this time.