Technology, Business & Cool Toys

Cutting the (Video) Cord, Part 2

by Adam Thierer on November 16, 2008 · 12 comments

In an essay I posted here back in October called “Cutting the (Video) Cord: The Shift to Online Video Continues” (part of an ongoing series), I reflected on an interesting piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Nick Wingfield’s entitled “Turn On, Tune Out, Click Here.” Wingfield’s article illustrated how rapidly the online video marketplace is growing and noted that so many shows are now available online that many people are cutting the cord entirely by canceling their cable or satellite subscriptions and just downloading everything they want to watch via sites like Hulu and supplmenting that with services like Netflix. In today’s Washington Post, Mike Musgrove writes about these same trends and developments in a column entitled, “TV Breaks Out of the Box.” Musgrove notes:

This has been a big year for both Netflix and online video services like Hulu.com, where people can watch episodes of popular shows such as “The Office” for free, though users do have to sit through a few commercials. When Tina Fey debuted her impression of Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live” last month, more people watched the comedy sketch online at NBC.com or Hulu.com than during the show’s broadcast. Last week, YouTube announced that it would start carrying old TV shows and movies from the film studio MGM.

As for Netflix, it seems that somebody there has been busy this year. While most customers still use the online video rental site mainly for movie deliveries by mail, the company now has a library of online content available for viewing on your TV through a variety of devices. A $99 appliance from Roku that plugs into your TV set and connects to the Web has been popular among some folks dropping their cable subscriptions. A couple of new, Web-connected Blu-ray players from Samsung and LG Electronics also allow Netflix subscribers to instantly watch titles from the company’s online collection.

Musgrove continues and notes that it’s about more than just Hulu and Netflix:

Continue reading →

12 comments

Bogus Privacy Fears over Google Flu Trends

by Adam Thierer on November 16, 2008 · 16 comments

Declan McCullagh, CNET News’ chief political correspondent, does a nice job debunking the privacy fears about Google Flu Trends that a couple of pro-regulatory privacy advocates have set forth. Flu Trends is a very cool application that uses search terms as an indicator of possible upticks in flu-related illnesses in various regions of the U.S. Of course, it didn’t take long for some Chicken Littles to rain on the parade with their irrational fears about data privacy. As Declan notes, however, there is no personally identifiable information being collected or shared here. It’s just search term analysis. Moreover, if these privacy-sensitive advocates are really that paranoid about it, they should just just Tor or another anonymizer to cloak their searches instead of calling in the regulators to suffocate another technology while its still in the cradle.

Anyway, make sure to read Declan’s excellent piece.

16 comments

Of iPhone Flutes, Digital Generativity, and Bongs

by Adam Thierer on November 14, 2008 · 9 comments

During my recent debate with Jonathan Zittrain about his book The Future of the Internet, I argued that there was just no way to bottle up digital generativity and that he had little to fear in terms of the future of the Net or digital devices being “sterile, tethered,” and closed. I noted that the iPhone — which Jonathan paints as the villain in his drama — is the perfect example of how people will make a device more generative even when the manufacturers didn’t originally plan for it or allow it. I went so far as to joke that there were countless ways to hack your iPhone now, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised if one day soon our iPhones would be taking out the trash and mowing our lawns!

Well, I was engaging in a bit of hyperbole there, but I am consistently amazed by what people can make their digital devices do. Witness the fact that some enterprising soul has found a way to turn the iPhone into a flute! Better yet, they have trained a group to play “Stairway to Heaven” using that application!! It’s enough to make one wonder: How long before someone converts the iPhone into a bong?

[Uttered to JZ in my best stoner voice…] “Seriously, dude, generativity is alive and well. Now chill, and pass the iBong.”

9 comments

Price Fixing in the LCD Business Sure Doesn’t Seem to Do Much Good!

by Adam Thierer on November 13, 2008 · 19 comments

There’s news today that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is imposing fines on three leading electronics manufacturers — LG Display Co. Ltd., Sharp Corp. and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. — “for their roles in conspiracies to fix prices in the sale of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.” According to the DOJ’s press release, of the $585 million in fines, LG will pay $400 million, the second highest criminal fine ever imposed by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division.

Regardless of the merits of the DOJ’s case, I have to ask: Has there ever been a worse attempt at fixing prices in the entire history of price fixing? After all, have you looked at flat-screen prices lately? They do nothing but fall, fall, fall — fast! Here are some numbers from Steve Lohr’s New York Times article about the DOJ case:

The LCD business is a $100-billion-a-year market and growing, but prices are falling relentlessly. Recently, panel prices have often been cut in half each year, a downward trajectory even steeper than in other technology markets known for steady price pressure, like those for computer chips and hard drives. In the last six months alone, the price of a 15.4-inch panel for a notebook PC has dropped to $63, from $97, and a 32-inch LCD for a television has gone to $223, from $321, according to iSuppli, a market research firm. The price-fixing conspiracy, industry analysts said, was an effort to slow the speed of price declines. “These companies were trying to get a toehold to protect profits in a very difficult market,” said Richard Doherty, director of research at Envisioneering, a technology consulting firm.

Yeah, well, that “toehold” didn’t protect squat. And how could it; it’s not like these are the only three companies in the LCD business. And you’ll forgive those of us who only have plasmas or projectors in our homes for wondering what the big deal is (although I am certainly aware that LCDs are the primary technology for smaller flat screen displays in computer monitors, cell phones, and other handhelds).

But hey, I’m sure the DOJ’s effort was worth it at some level. Some lucky handful of consumers will probably get a check for 65 cents once the class action dust settles on this one. In the meantime, if there is some sort of Antitrust Hall of Fame out there, I hearby nominate LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa for the “Worst Price Fixers in History” award.

19 comments

Obama’s Entrepreneurial Lesson

by Bret Swanson on November 7, 2008 · 7 comments

See my take on the election and the prospects for capitalism in today’s Wall Street Journal:

If Barack Obama ran for president by calling for a heavier hand of government, he also won by running one of the most entrepreneurial campaigns in history.

Will he now grasp the lesson his campaign offers as he crafts policies aimed at reigniting the national economy? Amid a recession, two wars, and a global financial crisis, will he come to see that unleashing the entrepreneur is the best way to raise the revenue he needs for his lofty priorities?

7 comments

Ticketmaster & Front Line Merger: Highway to Ticket Hell?

by Braden Cox on November 3, 2008 · 11 comments

Ticketmaster last week completed its acquisition of Front Line Management, a talent agency — expanding Ticketmaster’s empire into a vertically integrated unit renamed “Ticketmaster Entertainment.” Combine the acquisition with AC/DC announcing it is the latest band to use Ticketmaster’s “paperless ticket” technology on its live tour, and I’m left wondering — are we on the highway to ticket hell?

As I’ve written in a previous posting, Ticketmaster has introduced what it calls a “Paperless Ticket” and Veritix has a paperless ticketing technology called Flash Seats. The concept is the same – no more paper tickets.

And while I’m unabashedly pro-technology on many fronts, here’s where I’m skeptical. The use of electronic tickets, when combined with the recent vertical integration moves of both Ticketmaster and Live Nation, could provide less control for consumers to do what they want with tickets.

The trend in the industry is to integrate the 4 major aspects of a live show: 1) primary ticket sales; 2) management and promotion; 3) direct artist to fan (clubs and paraphernalia); and 4) secondary ticket sales. Technology can be used to help tie the ticket to all aspects of the business, and even provide more control to music artists, but the downside could be a lack of consumer control once the ticket is purchased.

Under Ticketmaster’s paperless tickets policy, you have to present a credit card and a government-issued photo identification for admittance. What if you want to sell the ticket? Or your baby sitter cancels in the last minute and you want to give your tickets to a friend? Can’t do it. At least not under the current policy.

AC/DC’s latest tour is named after its new album, Black Ice. Let’s hope that electronic tickets aren’t the cause of consumers skidding out of control of their own tickets.

11 comments

New Economy Business Models (Carr vs. Anderson)

by Adam Thierer on October 31, 2008 · 11 comments

Somewhere between Nick Carr’s “Typology of Network Strategies” and Chris Anderson’s “Four Kinds of Free” is the secret to understanding our new economy:

Carr’s “Typology of Network Strategies”:

Network effect
Data mining
Digital sharecropping, or “user-generated content”
Complements
Two-sided markets
Economies of scale, economies of scope, and experience

Anderson’s “Four Kinds of Free”:

Direct cross-subsidy (get one thing free, pay for another)
Ad-supported (third-party subsidizes second party)
“Freemium” (a few people subsidize everyone else)
“Gift economy” (people give away things for non-monetary rewards)

Of course, both Carr and Anderson are building on theories and business models previously articulated by many others. A few that come to mind:

Carl Shapiro & Hal Varian, Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy (1999)
Stan Liebowitz, Re-thinking the Network Economy (2002)
Jeffrey H. Rohlfs, Bandwagon Effects in High-Technology Industries (2001)
Oz Shy, The Economics of Network Industries (2001)
Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006)

11 comments

Twittering from National Press Club on Tech Presidential Campaign

by Drew Clark on October 30, 2008 · 3 comments

WASHINGTON, October 30 – At the National Press Club, Larry Irving and Grover Norquist are debating technology and the presidential candidates. Check out the side of the page on DrewClark.com, or at http://twitter.com/drewclark, for my live Twitters!

3 comments

Windows 7

by Tim Lee on October 14, 2008 · 12 comments

Slashdot linked to this post purporting to demonstrate that it’s ridiculous to consider the next version of Windows Windows 7. They offer several lists of past releases, all of which have at least 7 elements.

Obviously, the evolution of Windows has been sufficiently tortured that reasonable people can disagree about exactly how many generations there have been. In particular, the parallel development of the 3.1/95/98/ME and NT/2000 lines makes things unusually messy. But I think it’s entirely plausible to say that there have been the following 6 generations of Windows operating systems:

1. Windows
2. Windows 2
3. Windows 3/3.1 (NT 3)
4. Windows 95/98/ME (NT4)
5. Windows XP (Windows 2000)
6. Windows Vista

Windows 98/ME were clearly incremental upgrades of Windows 95. NT3, NT4, and Win2k were business/server operating systems that were released in parallel with the consumer products. It seems pretty reasonable to say that there have been 6 major releases of Windows, and that the one they’re working on now will be the seventh.

12 comments

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →