Jeffrey Word of SAP and I were discussing the other day pricing for ebooks on the iPad and Kindle. He is an author of many books and has been extremely valuable a coach as I go through my own publishing experience.
And it occurred to me while we give Apple credit – or criticism – for its products and technologies, the enduring impact the company will eventually be recognized for is the business models it has influenced in so many verticals.
It started with music and iTunes. The music industry still bitches and moans but the 99c pricing massively increased volume especially in the Long Tail of music – let’s face it, there are plenty of one hit wonders you would not have bought the entire record for.
Now it is trying to do with TV shows on the iPad. And the networks, like music, don’t like it.
Ditto with apps for the iPhone, Low threshold price points have led to over 100,000 apps in such a short time. Unlike music or networks, though, the entrepreneurs here are thrilled with Apple.
But Apple has been anything but predictable, especially in challenging the incumbent players…
Fascinating post about business models and Apple’s influence on industry but perhaps we may never *really* know the lasting influence that the Apple industry has on things like the environment. I was surprised to read today (the same day as your posting Vinnie) how Apple shareholders rejected having Apple create a detailed sustainability report. Apple shareholders say no to environmental measures . That’s a bit disappointing news in the context of lasting influences. With the potential of being such a leading business role model, one would hope that a green apple would be sweeter one in the bin.
Marilyn, Vinnie,
I remember when Apple was the IT counter-culture, including environmentalism. Seeing Marilyn’s reply reminded me of the recent SDN article – Sustainability, the efficiency proxy.
Perhaps it’s Jobs’ way of doing things, perhaps its a bit of arrogance, but we DO expect people / organisations to live up to their image 🙂
Your right about that, I bought many $15 dollar CDs for one song. Popular bands for years made a killing by working on one song and filling the rest of the album with crappy fillers so they can charge for a full album. I think the growth of Ebooks will help new authors the most, because you don’t need a publisher.
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