The Pricing Struggle over E-Books

In a recent move in the ongoing chess game between Amazon, maker of the Kindle, and the Publishing industry, Amazon has agreed to a scheme under which the publishers would have a say in the price of the e-books and retain 70% of the proceeds. That's a major shift. The publishing industry is under pressure to prove it deserves a piece of this pie and in the long term it will be the consumers who decide. E-books are not going to go away, and should be cheaper because they do not have the production costs, such as binding and printing.

One major thing that the publishers do bring to the table, however, is quality control. While self-publishing is big, there is not yet a good mechanism to screen out the good from the bad, other than the open market, which is not good enough. There is quite a lot of shake-out yet to come in the publishing industry and its relationship with ebooks. Here's an article on the topic.

Mobile Shopping

Evidence that the recent emphasis on mobile devices being used for e-commerce has been put forward by eBay. Their latest statistics show that shopping by mobile users has tripled during the latest holiday shopping season. Around 750,000 people have installed the eBay mobile mobile application. That's a significant number! For a thorough rundown on eBay's latest sales profile, see this article.

Seizure of Laptops at Borders

The policy of some countries to randomly search and seize laptops of visitors at border checkpoints has been under fire by many civil liberties groups. Most recently, the American Civil Liberties Union has begun the process of launching a class action seeking to cause changes in the existing practices in the US. One can see the need for search and seizure of laptops and other electronic devices in certain circumstances, but there are significant privacy issues involved, and the governmental policies should recognize these issues. A clear and transparent policy is required. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "The man who sacrifices his freedom to achieve security deserves neither." Increasingly, as security policies driven by fear are tightened, we need to be aware of the sacrifices being made of our freedom. This is happening not just in the US, but also in Canada and other countries.

New IBM Technology Predictions

IBM has released its top ten technology predictions for 2010. Many of them are directly relevant to e-business. For example, there are predictions for a growth in cloud computing, more high speed internet access through wireless devices, further restructuring of the banking industry away from the branch system, and growth of services delivery through technology. It all makes for an interesting year or two as these areas develop further and trigger changes in business models. The predictions are published in IT World Canada.

TV - The Struggle for a Business Model

Television is in process of  the biggest struggle for a business model since its inception in the 1940s. The original model, the broadcast model, depended on advertising revenues for its funding. But then the cable model entered the scene, which gets not only advertising revenue but subscriber revenue. That made possible more, and more expensive, programming. In the past few years, the big cable operators have been going head to head with the broadcast companies, and the broadcasters are losing, especially those who broadcast local programming.

The internet is looming as the major delivery vehicle of programming. It is there now through the sites of the major networks and specialty sites like tv.com. But for content, it depends on the traditional sources. When internet TV matures, there will still be an issue of which business model to adopt - the same old alternatives - broadcast or subscriber. There could also be another approach, such as paying for individual programs. Something like iTunes, where subscribers pay 99 cents for an episode of a program.

The outcome of the current struggle between the cable operators and broadcasters will be an important indicator for the future. But it won't determine the final outcome. The final outcome will be determined on the internet.

For an excellent article on the current clash of business models, see this article.  

Predictions about the Future

Yogi Berra is reputed to have said that it is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. yes, this is the time of year that we do just that, especially where this is the end of a decade - a most remarkable decade.

Ten years ago, the iMac had 64 mg of RAM and a 10 gig memory. Most people did not have broadband internet. Smartphones with built-in cameras had not yet been invented.

In ten years time, powerful personal computers will be unnecessary because computing will be done in the cloud. Data will be freely available in many forms. Probably raw data with some context built into it. Data that people will be able to analyze and make their own conclusions. Analysts and investors will be a good example, where they will have the use of tools like XBRL which allow customized data to be transpoorted across platforms and analyzed without the benefit of standard reports like balance sheets and income statements. It will be a new era in ten years time.

At least that's the way it looks now. But then, Yogi Berra had a point.

For some more predictions and ruminations see this article.

Technology Can Bridge Marketing and Sales

Technology can be a major help in marketing campaigns, some would say an indispensable part of modern marketing. However, in order for a marketing program to work well, there must be some conmmmonality of thinking between marketing and sales. Otherwise, the leads and ideas that marketing feeds to sales will be misinterpreted, resented or even ignored. This is an old problem, but technology can help in providing a forum through which marketing and sales can communicate and provide input and feedback on an ongoing basis. It's an element of technology use that makes good sense. For more follow this link.

Facebook's new Privacy Policy

Is Facebook having trouble getting it right? This week, Facebook launched their new privacy policy and procedures. Users were faced with a tool that asked them to choose the levels of privacy they would allow regarding key parts of their information, such as email addresses, phone numbers and addresses.

The new approach is running into some criticism from critics, who say that the defaults on the new policy open up the availability of the information, which means the user needs to take specific action to restrict access. Some feel it should be the other way around.

Others point out that Facebook had touted the new policy as tightening the security around individual privacy, but that the policy tends instead to extend availablility, in some cases to the entire web.

Maybe there is a need for some tweaking. Here's one take on the situation.

An Open Standard for E-Readers?

E-Readers, such as the kindle are selling like hot cakes, yet the very existence of a proprietary standard for such devices is unsustainable. People don't want to have to buy 5 different e-readers just to read the books they purchase from different suppliers.

In a move that is definitely in the right direction, the top magazine publishers have entered into a deal to support a common open standard platform for their magazines. Clearly, this is to the benefit of the consumers - the magazine readers.

While this new open standard appears to be restricted to magazines, hopefully a similar open standard will emerge for book e-readers as well. Then watch e-reading take off!

For an article on the magazine publishers' initiative, see this article.

Government Policies and Social Media

It seems the US government and no doubt other governments are using social media as a useful tool to investigate people and capture criminals. This carries some concerns as most people are innocent of any wrongdoing and in the non-cyberworld, long established safeguards are in place to secure the privacy and presume the innocence of ordinary citizens. In the cyberworld, however, such steps are not really in place. Although one would hope that the same safeguards would extend to the cyber-environment, the question is - do they? It would seem that clearer policies would be worth considering.

For more on this issue, check out this article. Also there is a white paper on Government and Social media available for free (for a limited time) download from Information week.

The Universality of Broadband

Here's an interesting social question. Should we take the necessary steps in society to make broadband universally available?

It's an important question, because the continued growth and success of our economy depends on technology and broadband is the core of modern technology. Access to high speed internet improves access to information, enables better education and promotes higher levels of productivity. These advantages cut across all sectors of the economy, albeit to different degrees. Generally, people with higher incomes make good use of broadband. those with lower incomes do not. Lack of universality of broadband access therefore promotes the digital divide - the growing economic disparities in society brought about by access to technology. It's a chicken an egg situation. People without broadband are at an economic disadvantage, in their education and in their jobs. They tend to become lower income, and therefore can't afford broadband or the equipment to make use of it. People in poverty can't afford broadband and therefore have yet another impediment to improving their lot in life.

Should the government step in to develop policies for universal access to broadband? There have been sporadic attempts to do this, but not a comprehensive carefully defined policy. The question has been likened to the initiatives during the industrial revolution to make road access available to everyone. Broadband is the new road system, just as essential to the e-economy as roads were to the i-economy. It needs to be approached that way.

The Opportunity, A Novel

A new novel - The Opportunity, by Gerald Trites, has just been published. The novel involves the high tech industry and has an e-business backdrop. It centers on a complex merger in the high tech industry. It is available from Amazon.com and, in Canada, from BlackAvon Books.

CRM Failure

Customer Relationship Systems are large systems that take a lot of time and resources to properly implement and then operate. They are in the same league as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, and the size and scope of some of the failures with these systems are legendary.

Some failures, however, are not as dramatic or obvious as the more famous implementation failures. Sometimes, the new system comes into production, and then the users work with it and it can take a long time before the realization creeps in that the system is not delivering on its promise, perhaps that it is draining the enterprise of its resources and not delivering results.

This calls for ongoing vigilence and the implementation of evaluation systems, carried out by groups with a degree of independence from the implementation, to determine whether the system needs to be tweaked or even replaced.

An article in E-Commerce News addresses this issue for CRM systems and offers some practical advice.

International E-Tailing

Selling internationally is a benefit of the internet. However it also carries risks, as international fraud is high. So precautions are in order, as well as using the best of the international marketing sites and services to help share the risk. This article takes a quick look at this arena, and offers up some sound advice.

That Blinkin E-Mail

Most people find e-mail management frustrating, at least some of the time and in many cases virtually all of the time. It just keeps flooding in, and much of it is stuff you don't really want to read, at least right now, but have subscribed to because it comes form an area of interest and might be useful in the future. So we sort through it and file it appropriately.

What if this process were automated. Just think how much time it would save.

The first reaction to this idea is that - is there any system out there we could trust to sort it accurately? The fact is, some of those messages are important, indeed crucial to our jobs. So we need to find out quickly which are important and which aren't.

One idea being floated is that we can learn from some of the techniques used in social networks. They often enable messages to be built into searchable databases. They have approval systems (thumbs up/thumbs down) that help to shape the messages received.

Google Mail does some of this, but sorts the messages by conversation. Google Wave has some promise, primarily for collaborative situations, but is untried. There are other possible tools, though. Check out the suggestions in this article.

Online Shopping

We still hear about shoppers who are afraid of online shopping because of security concerns. Some of this fear is fed by prominent stories in the media about identity theft, credit card fraud and phishing. many of the fears are overblown.

The fact is, online shopping is safer than ever before. Website security is well established. Payment card companies have adopted new and better means of authentication. Encryption techniques are commonly used and with modern systems and browsers, need not slow down transactions.

True, shoppers still need to be aware of the danger of fraud, fake sites, and phishing and hacking. However, many people these days have the basic level of "web smarts" to be able to tell when something is not right..

Online shopping has been a growing industry. Each year sees significant increases in the volume and this year it is likely to grow again. Hopefully the numbers of people who are deterred by security concerns is diminishing. Here's an article on this topic with more detail.

Facebook Responds to Canada's Privacy Commissioner

Facebook has recently posted changes to its privacy policy in response to an investigation by the Office of the Privacy commissioner of Canada. That investigation identified a number of instances where Facebook privacy policy did not meet Canadian rulkes, For example, the Canadain legislation is clear about the requirement to fully inform users of why their information is being collectedd and what will be done with it. Facebook has had policies that were vague in this department. They also had a policy of retaining information for deleted accounts, which users did not necessarily know about. Their argument was that the users might wish to reinstate their accounts in future. However, the users have a right to have the information deleted if they wish.

A good writeup on this development is found on InternetNews.

Paypal - A Success Story

There have been some remarkable success stories in eCommerce over the past ten years, but few overshadow that of Paypal. Starting out as simple way for people to pay for goods on palm pilots, it was bought by eBay, and  has grown into a full service online payment system accepting most major credit cards and serving almost 80 million people today. Now it is positioned to outgrow eBay itself - a remarkable achievement. More of the story can be found on Technology Review.

The Perils of Internet Phone Systems

We've been saying for years that the phone systems of the country are going to end up on the internet. this has been happening especially over the past couple of years, with many businesses buying into this relatively less expensive option, as well as its convenience. However, as with other business applications moving to the internet it carries with it new security challenges. Now the risks are beginning to surface and some companies are not ready for the challenge. Check out this write-up on the issue.

Word of Mouth Marketing

Marketing through word of mouth, referrals from happy customers, for example, has long been a most effective technique for many businesses. People are more likely to be convinced by someone who has had a positive experience with a company than by an impersonal image on TV.

The past few years have seen a growth in social media and, what is more important, a change in the demographics of the users of social media. Research now shows that over 35-year-olds now form a major component of social media users. Something like Twitter is a means of reaching out in a word of mouth fashion. Re-tweets can extend the message to a wider audience. Media like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Flickr, Digg, etc all offer the opportunity to advertise by word of mouth. It's the new way and many companies are picking up on it. A good article on this topic is found in E-Commerce News.