Comments for Brad Landers

Comment on Visualizing the Sourceforge Download Data by Rich

Rich — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:54:27 +0000

I’ve posted a brief update to yesterday’s article: https://sourceforge.net/blog/update-other-and-unknown/

Comment on Amazon is about to pull an Apple by bradland

bradland — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:30:48 +0000

Sorry for the delay, gents. I don’t normally enable comments, so I wasn’t expecting them for approval. I must have enabled them by accident on this one.

Comment on Amazon is about to pull an Apple by Steve Giovannetti

Steve Giovannetti — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 12:26:29 +0000

One thing I think you overlook in your analysis of Google is their purchase of Motorola Mobile. They are a minor player. The Xoom hasn’t sold much but they now presumably make money from sales of the Xoom and other Moto Android based devices.

Comment on Amazon is about to pull an Apple by Mike

Mike — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 10:11:22 +0000

Good job analyzing the companies, especially to point out the strong retail background + strong hardware experience for Amazon.

But I find your conclusion lacking. The single device argument is not unique to Amazon, what is an iPad if not a ‘single device’? It’s not like buying a kitchen appliance on an iPad requires another device.

And what exactly is the retail experience? On an iPad it’s a different app for each different shop. Not a great experience (can’t get a discount across different products for example) but does allow each shop a fair chance and the consumer has a choice.

Will the Amazon tablet offer a ‘better’ experience? Will there be just one app for shopping? Sure, the end to end experience of buying 2 books AND 1 lawn chair is improved. But will the consumer feel ‘trapped’ in the Amazon super store and start wondering about that ‘special’ product that their friends/relatives can buy but that isn’t sold by Amazon?

I think Amazon might try to go for complete lock-in with their tablet (eg only e-commerce from their own app or through their own API and thus ultimately from their shop). In that case it’s not a tablet I would ever buy or recommend.

Interesting times ahead!

Comment on Apple’s 30% vig is bad for innovation by bradland

bradland — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:39:24 +0000

Flipboard is an example of an innovative company whose options are now limited because of Apple’s aggressive commission structure. I have about 16 “tiles” in my Flipboard app that I use every day. I’m fully aware that they don’t charge and don’t plan to, but my overarching point isn’t so much Flipboard, but other innovative companies who might want to charge a subscription fee.

Let’s say — purely hypothetically — that Flipboard decides they’re going to package up their content specification and viewer to sell to publishers just like Adobe does for companies like Wired. There are several models under which this can be accomplished. One is to simply sell the software to publishers and let them build the books. That’s unlikely, as these publishers have a tendency to lean toward outsourcing this type of work. So, that means publishers want someone who is going to handle the foot work of converting their content and making it available on the App Store. This pushes companies like Flipboard in to a facilitator role.

I know this because I’ve done work in the space. My biggest customer for 8 years was a children’s book publisher. Their business is creating content, not web development, and not iOS development. With Apple in the game at 30%, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for facilitators. This doesn’t mean facilitators can’t get in the game, it means there isn’t as much room for them. That’s called a disincentive, and that’s bad for business. When fewer business models are available, fewer businesses will come to the table, and you’ll see less innovation.

Comment on Apple’s 30% vig is bad for innovation by foljs

foljs — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:18:01 +0000

Interesting, but with a huge oversight.

Flipboard doesn’t charge for subscriptions, either in-app or outside it, and it doesn’t even plan to:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_magazines_business_model.php

Comment on Apple’s 30% vig is bad for innovation by Matt

Matt — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:28:12 +0000

Agreed. My iOS devices can go away. I will follow the content wherever it goes – if that means Android, then so be it. Apple needs to realize what makes a compelling platform actually compelling. It’s the content that keeps me engaged, not the $0.99 throw-away fart apps.

Comment on Google WebM: Who will think of the users? by James

James — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:51:41 +0000

Isn’t most mobile hardware obsolete within four to six years? Which is approximately how long it will probably take to get WebM support in the majority of phones. Google won’t drop H.264 support from YouTube any time soon, at least while it’s the only format that has hardware support in mobile devices.

Comment on Google WebM: Who will think of the users? by Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:40:25 +0000

Which is the case for most technological advancements.

Comment on Google WebM: Who will think of the users? by bradland

bradland — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:28:35 +0000

All good points, Adam, but the presence of WebM hardware in the market next year doesn’t negate the fact that there are billions of dollars worth of H.264 deployed in the market. If the push to WebM happens quickly, it will come at the cost of a lot of obsolete hardware.