Archive for internet
July 12, 2006 at · Filed under internet, mobile, technology
there have been many companies that announced they are launching an "iPod Killer" over the past couple of years, but iPod's market share continues to grow, and most of those "killers" are long buried and forgotten. now microsoft joins the fray and is coming up with its own MP3 player.
i read this article that is giving microsoft some tips on how they can try and take market share away from iPod, so i thought i'll try to offer them some tips, too
1. Form Factor is more important than features
take a lesson from Motorola's success with RAZR. Motorola proved that when it comes to a mobile phone the mass market cares more about the form factor than the features. rather than come up with the latest and greatest features they chose to focus on building the coolest looking device.
and it worked. people didn't care about the features and the ease-of-use of the software, they just wanted to use the coolest looking device.
microsoft should try to come up with a more appealing design for its device (slim seems to be "in"). if the picture below reflects their final design i think they may have not done enough..
2. Brand is more important than Form Factor
more important than form factor is the brand. iPod continue to prove this point. people don't even compare its with Creative, Samsung or Sony devices, they don't bother to look at those other brands. they just want their iPod, because that's what everybody else has. this is the toughest hurdle microsoft (or any other competitor) has to clear.
generating coolness is far from an exact science. and microsoft has some brand challenges to deal with.. i think their best chance is to try and work through influential grassroots, and one way to get the support of these guys is by implementing #3 - #5..
3. DRM is evil
many people are upset (the french parliament, too..) about the walled garden apple has built with iPod and iTunes. i can't play music i downloaded from iTunes on other devices, and i can't play music i bought from other services on my iPod.
this is a typical apple/steve jobs strategy and one that has lead to apple losing the PC business to microsoft. if apple is not careful they can see this market evaporate for them as well.
if microsoft can pick up the glove and lead the charge for an open, user-friendly, minimal DRM eco-system (maybe give a strong embrace to creative commons?). it may give them the "street cred" they so desperately lacking and start generating some real support from the users.
4. something better than itunes, embrace Podcasts and Vodcasts
the iTunes software sucks. it is heavy, slow and cumbersome. microsoft should offer a simpler version of the windows media player to manage the device, and create an easy-to-use interface to access podcasts and vodcasts. the podcast support in iTunes is an after-thought and it looks that way.
5. open yourself to the developers community
the iPod/iTunes is a closed environment, making it very difficult for developers (whether it is small companies or individuals) to create extensions and innovate.
microsoft should make its device and desktop software open to the developer community, so new features could be introduced and let the device/service be used in ways microsoft did not envision themselves.
6. WiFi, connectivity
iPod is really lacking connectivity. i would add to an MP3 player both WiFi and wireless data (EDGE?) capabilities. it will enable people to purchase music and videos, as well as download podcasts and vodcasts to their devices.
in addition they should let people share content between the devices (goes back to the DRM issues). they could do some really cool stuff with sharing over WiF
7. FM radio
not a great technology innovation, but really missing from the iPod.
if they implement all of the above i think they can generate some real buzz and get users excited. can't promise them millions of users, but i'll do my share and buy one.
July 11, 2006 at · Filed under internet, politics
congress has passed legislation (house voted 317-93) trying to further limit online gambling, but carving out state run lotteries and horse racing???
i don't see why they are trying to fight it. makes much more sense to regulate the field, let the states/federal government take their piece of the action (like any respectable mob organization), and give the people the freedom to lose all their money.
carving out lotteries and horse race betting is obviously without any real merit.
July 11, 2006 at · Filed under internet
according to HitWise MySpace has passed Yahoo! and Google as the most visited site in the US. if you look at the growth in popularity of MySpace over the past couple of years i guess you shouldn't be surprised.
i find it amazing. and it is also the reason i love the Internet so much. that a company can come out of nowhere with a relatively low investment and shake up the industry.
this comes as news are circulating about Bebo rejecting a $550M acquisition from a company in the UK. if i was at the head of Bebo i would have sold. you never know when the bubble is going to burst, and with such a tag price both VCs and founders should be ok.. (facebook is also rumored to have rejected an offer of around $1B).
i guess MySpace winning the #1 spot will not make these guys think they are worth any less…
July 8, 2006 at · Filed under internet, movies, television
veoh a video sharing site (ala YouTube) was sued by Io Group a company that produces adult video.
the lawsuit claims that veoh has allowed users to upload Io produced videos to its site, generating significant traffic and revenues out of content that was illegally uploaded to the site.
this could end up being a very important case for the video sharing industry, as it may set a precedent to the liability these sites have for the content that is being uploaded by the users. today most of the copyrighted content that is being uploaded are short clips from TV shows, movie trailers, sport highlights, etc. in these cases i believe the uploads while violate the copyright are actually serving as a great promotional tool.
in case of adult content the story is quite different. these companies have been hit hard by the file sharing phenomenon (much harder than the big movie studios), and are now losing audience to these video sharing sites. the average porn user does not need a full 1hr film to get-off, but can use a much shorter film easily uploaded to the likes of veoh or youtube.
so i guess the lawsuit has merit. the movie/tv studios are likely to follow very closely as this has implications on them too, sooner rather than later it will be easy to upload and consume full length tv shows and movies in this way, and this is a serious threat to the studios.
the major studios are likely to end up coming with deals with the leading video sharing sites, splitting ad revenues. the porn industry will have a harder time, since they work in a different model.
will be interesting to follow this lawsuit and see where it ends.
July 7, 2006 at · Filed under internet, movies, television
replayTV has announced a version of their DVR for Windows. users can download the software (30 days free trial) and use it on their PCs to watch and record TV shows. buying the software will cost $100 for a year and will include the EPG (electronic programming guide).
what i don't understand is why do they even bother. Microsoft Media Center PC is offering the same functionality for free, and if you want an even better experience you can download one of the open-source versions. i think MediaPortal is the best choice.
replay has lost its battle with TiVO, which lost its battle with the cable/sattelite companies (ala EchoStar and DirectTV). these companies need to re-invent themselves, but offering a PC DVR is probably too little, too late for these guys.
a better direction (which i believe TiVO is pursuing) is the internet, rather than try to bring the TV content to the PC, how about making it simpler to consume internet video on the TV? and i don't mean just bringing YouTube stuff, there are video blogs and there is also a lot of professionaly produced video content that just does not make it to the cable channels and/or video-on-demand catalog.
July 7, 2006 at · Filed under internet
eBay's president of north america published a letter to end users talking about the problem of excessive shipping charges.
by excessive shipping he talks about situations where sellers sell an item for $1 and charge a $100 shipping fee.. he claims this is the #1 issue deterring buyers from completing transactions, and said eBay is starting to clean up the site and remove such sellers.
i am surprised it took them that long to deal with it, since this has been an issue almost from the beginning of the service. i think they can automate the removal of such items quite easily, it should help make the eBay listings a bit more honest.
July 6, 2006 at · Filed under internet
there are lots of rumors about microsoft launching an "iPod killer" before x-mas. apparently they got tired of waiting for their hardware partners to come up with a better device/brand/user experience, and decided to try and do it on their own. i wish them luck.
engadget reported today that as part of their marketing plan they are going to offer iTunes users to scan their iTunes library and automatically download these songs to the microsoft device/service free of charge, and free of iTunes evil DRM (though including microsoft's DRM…)
i think it's a very good idea. i hate the fact that it is such a pain to try and transfer iTunes music to other computers. not to mention trying to use it on other devices. but instead of exchanging one DRM for another i wish there was a simple utility that will scan my iTunes library and just download all of the songs from bittorrent (or any other file sharing network).
if you know of such an application let me know :)
July 6, 2006 at · Filed under internet
there was news this week about an in-text advertising company, Kontera, raising $7M. there is another company in this space, intellitxt.
what these companies do is that they integrate advertising into the regular text of the website. so lets say there is an article and it mentions a digital camera. when the user views the site the words 'digital camera' will be highlighted like a regular hyperlink. a mouse-over will pop-up a window that will have an ad for a digital camera.
i think this is a terrible way for websites to generate ad revenues, since it really hinders the user experience. i am sure many users are fooled into clicking those links. not surprisingly there are already products out there that are intended to remove these links..
i really don't like this stuff, and i wish VCs will stop funding these type of companies. but i guess failing websites starving for revenues will want to do whatever they can to squeeze dollars out of every page view, so there is a market for this garbage.
July 6, 2006 at · Filed under internet
there was a new york times article and multiple posts (here is one) about how video sharing sites are looking for new ways to moentize their service and share the revenues with the users.
the revenue model for video sharing sites is quite straight forward, they can:
- insert video ads into the video clips
- text/banner advertising on the web page where the user views the clip
- offer premium video content (and either charge for it or share ad revenues with the content owner)
- serve as distribution channel for movie trailers, music videos, etc. and charge the content owner
what is new for these video sharing sites (but not the first time it is being done on the internet) is that they are trying to put together a model in which they will share the revenues with the end-users (not those that visit the site, but rather those that submit the videos).
this model makes perfect sense to me and is fair to the end-users, it will probably be abused by click-fraud and spammers, so these sites will have to spend a lot of time fighting it and protecting their revenue stream. i hope this trend will also lead to more reasonable site policies with regard to the site rights with regard to the content (some of these sites, including YouTube, are giving themselves too many rights when it comes to what they can do with the content)
June 23, 2006 at · Filed under internet, technology
last week there were several reports about the RIAA sending cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users who created videos using music protected by copyrights.
the WSJ reported about it and other major news sources, and the blogging world went crazy. but so far i have not seen any copy of these cease-and-desist letters, nor any credible person claiming that he received such a notice. which leads me to believe this story is a hoax.
i have very little respect or regard to the RIAA, but i doubt that they could be that stupid (though they were stupid enough to sue 12 year old girls for file sharing..).
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