Will the iPad Able to Float Publishers’ Boats?
February 17, 2010
My answer to this question about a product that has not shipped containing information that I don’t know about at prices that are fuzzy is, “Nope.” Apparently, I am not alone in my skeptical goose pond. “Publishers Skeptical of Apple iPad Business Model” reported other Doubting Thomases. In my reading, some of the publishers mentioned in the Apple Insider write up are not sure that the iPad and its business model will deliver big bucks. For me, the most interesting comment was:
One unnamed newspaper senior media executive said Apple’s reluctance to share consumer data beyond sales volume is “pretty damn close” to being a deal breaker.
Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas, 1597
Another point of interest:
Some publishers also said Apple’s revenue model, which gives the content provider 70 percent of sales while Apple keeps 30 percent, does not make much sense for subscriptions. Publishers are also reportedly concerned that they will see the same impact iTunes had on the music industry in 2003, when individual song sales from Apple severely impacted consumer purchases of full albums.
In my business, I start with assumption that a person pretty much does the same thing that worked in the past again. Sure, there are some minor changes, but a biochemist usually does biochemical stuff. My hunch is that Apple does Apple stuff. Hope is a wonderful human quality, but I assert that Apple starts work thinking about how to make life better for Apple. Publishers, well, maybe a resource to be used as needed?
Stephen E Arnold, February 17, 2010
No one paid me to write about Apple. With food as a metaphor, I will report writing for no money to the Department of Agriculture. I wonder if a relative of Johnny Appleseed works at a regional research lab now?
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