The Reach - Podcasting and other Portable Media Strategies

Apple wins the battle of dealing with crises with this reponse to the Chinese manufacturing issues that were raised a few months ago and written about in this blog here but originally reported on MacWorld UK.

General response (and I agree) has been tremendous at the transparency and hard work of Apple to diligently investigate and report both the good and the bad of this situation.  Don’t just take my word for it - check it out Gizmodo, Boing Boing or The Unofficial Apple Weblog to name a few others that have supported their efforts, findings and general response to the issues raised.

Good job, Steve and the crew at Apple.  Thanks for showing us how to deal with a crisis.

To a certain degree, one must have a fairly sizable ego to blog.  Hence, when that ego is not assuaged by something symbolizing readership, it can be discouraging.

Nick Carr writes a thoughtful blog entry wondering if anyone will ever read - or comment - or enter into a dialogue.  Great question - well written. Essentially discusses A-list bloggers being a self-perpetuating dynasty until they quit or die.

He promptly gets humliated by A-list bloggers here, here, here and the subsequent discussion certainly is numero uno on TechMeme.

While I’ve never entered this debate before, I find that I have something to say about it.  Andy Warhol’s “15 minutes of fame” comes to mind.  Starting to blog is a lonely place.  Most of the A-listers were probably there at one point and now are not sure how they “got lucky”.  They’ve just forgotten how lonely it was at one point and now may think they have all the blogging answers. 

I think whatever readership and “fame” is generated to a person via blogging is somewhat short-lived.  To think otherwise is to believe that every startup from Silicon Valley will succeed because of its location.  History would prove otherwise and will do so again.

As Dennis Miller used to say after his rants - “But that’s just my opinion.  I could be wrong.”

Ed and Giovanni continue to discuss the Long Tail and it’s real value.  Advertising models are discussed, both local and long distance - meaning international.  Check it out over on The Media Swamp.

Much like the Real Estate world (location, location, location), the new digital media world slogan may end up being “licensing, licensing, licensing”.  The YouTube discussion continues via Ben Werdmuller, following John C. Dvorak’s MarketWatch article from last week.  Ben mentions that YouTube has been named the “Napster of video”, which suggests illegal distribution of media.  This also pertains to Google Video as well, or for that matter, any website that is allowing uploads of video.

Similarly, this issue was addressed in an interview with Bill Gates, by a panel of journalists from WSJ Online on June 19, 2006.  Bill was busted at the end by admitting to watching pirated content on YouTube.

We just thought this related to music and the RIAA, but it appears that digital media everywhere must change their expected models of distribution and compensation, otherwise we’ll be fighting over this after I’m dead and gone…

Giovanni and I just finished a podcast discussing this - stay tuned for the publish date!

What is the long tail? With Robert Scoble leaving Microsoft and going to PodTech, has he been surprised by being confronted with being responsible for discovering and developing podcast and vodcast talent and creating quality, compelling content now? Click here for the new episode from The Media Swamp.

This comes under the heading of “the customers don’t get it yet, so let’s make them pay”.  Reuters has this article which is posted on Yahoo! News this morning regarding Alltel’s launch of a “new” service that allows downloads or streaming of podcasts directly to your cellphone.

While I agree that one has to develop a business model to support the use of new technologies, I’m concerned that the window of success here is about 6 months.  Why not download the podcasts to your computer using a podcast client/reader and transfer the content over to the phone (Smartphone, etc) that will play the media?

Now, to Melodeo’s credit, they’ve built a podcast client that loads on the phones - but are people dying to get their mission critical podcasts to the second on the fly?   In my opinion, we won’t be using this model a year from now.  Just my 2 cents.

GigaOM reports a new online TV launch for Tibetans.  This continues to give life to the concept of reaching out to various cultures, regardless of their geography.  Obviously, in past 100 years or so years, many cultures have been spread around the world, largely due to ease of travel.  The Internet, probably more than any other tool, can be leveraged to create ties back home, wherever home is.  The culture can thus be preserved.  If the country in question is not a safe place to live, these people can at least have a “taste” of home, while they are living in safety and freedom.

Engadget has a write-up here on a Blackberry 8100 which will be consumer-like in its feature set. Cameraphone, audio and video playback capability, etc - due to be out this fall. The site rumors that T-Mobile will be the first carrier selling it - my sources confirm that. T-Mobile has typically been the first to launch the more slim versions of the Blackberry product line, which uses predictive text for typing, instead of a full QWERTY keyboard.

This continues to confirm our opinion that the phone handset will be the media player of choice.

The real plus, with Blackberry coming out with this device, is that BB has had the best battery management of phones compared with other manufacturers. This will enable the media play capability to have some life along with the phone functionality. As a friend of mine said recently - if my iPod runs out of juice, that’s no big deal. But, if because of my media playing on my phone, my phone dies - I’m dead. Business-wise, that is. I assume….

Good news and bad news for OLPC (the One Laptop Per Child program) and Nicholas Negroponte. First, the good news (for OLPC) - Nigeria has placed the first order for 1 million units. Or have they? Other countries reported to be “in the pipeline” are Brazil, Argentina, and Thailand.

The bad news - India not only says “no” but, “NO!” with extreme prejudice.

As I’ve written before, it takes a pretty literate person to use a computer and many people around the world can’t, don’t or won’t read.

We should promote literacy - it helps to assert the people groups in their trade with other people groups or countries and therefore provides economic development. But, can we expect one program to solve the world’s educational issues? In my opinion, much like India, I believe there are greater fundamental issues to be resolved first. I would hate to see Nigeria spend $100 million on a program that doesn’t get results. I think many wonder why invest $100MM in computers when you could do more long lasting good with some permanent programs.

Has anyone figured out the customer support model for these? What happens when one breaks? What’s the warranty on the product?

Granted, I haven’t met Nicholas and had the opportunity to ask the questions. But, this could be a very expensive process. Let’s not make it an expensive one for the very children we’re trying to reach! Even if these devices are considered a toy, when one breaks, the child is going to be broken hearted when the person that gave him/her one says - there are no more left.

So, you say, quit criticizing and offer a solution? OK - here’s what I recommend: Understand the current methods these children currently learn by. Fund more of those methods. If they’re literate and can effectively benefit for years by having one of these devices, by all means, give them one! If they’re from an Oral culture, then find another means to raise their education level, using Oral Learning methods. Let’s nurture and help grow what is there naturally - not pretend that we understand who they are when we generally will not.

Ok. I’m off my soapbox for a little while. Thanks for tuning in.

Saturday, July 29, the NY Times had an interesting article that generated some buzz. You might look at the title of this post and wonder the connection between the three. Well, let me explain. There has been a lot of discussion both here and other blogs, articles, etc. regarding phones as media players. As a matter of fact, as many of you may know, I believe it will ultimately replace the autonomous mp3/mp3 player market.

3G wireless systems have been the buzz in the U.S. for 6 years or more. Will WI-FI or WIMAX over mobile handsets make 3G irrelevant? In the short term, probably not. In the long term? Maybe so. By demanding access to multi-media files on the handsets, consumers will definitely be pressing for this ability. I don’t think 3G has the download speeds to satisfy over the long haul.

As podcasting becomes more mainstream, this too will increase demand from consumers for true broadband (1.5 MBps download speeds) over their wireless systems that support their phone calls. I believe the downloads/portability drives this, rather than “streaming live” in the short term - in that too many things have to be perfect to support that. I can’t always get a perfect live streaming experience over a wired broadband connection today - I think the frustrations would be disastrous in today’s U.S wireless market.

That being said, Japan has been watching live video on their cell phones for 6 or 7 years now. South Korea appears to have at least 1 million receivers (as of June 2006) that have been sold to utilize a system that allows this.

Everyone is trying to get everyone else to adopt their standard. Standardization gets to be a problem when pride gets in our way. On top of that, we have business models that “guaranteed” a certain return to investors - they’re not going to be happy about watching that change. That is a macro discussion that will affect Wi-FI, podcasting, and phones. If the current wireless carriers push the consumers to accept less speed for downloads by lobbying against WI-FI or WIMAX adoption, then the consumer will suffer and the related adoption of media downloads of all types to phones will be delayed. Hmm. Big potential problem, don’t you think?