In the last couple of months many of the big players of digital content and multimedia devices, like never before, sent a lot of “Gentleman – words” to their competitors and not only to them. Everything looks like the result of the latest economic meltdown, where the financial resource changed their asset and the markets reduced the request, but this probably is not the real cause.
Probably the big companies realized what will happen in the next years, how will the consumer digital markets become 1 or 2 big digital markets and not only that. Everybody wants to be the first to enter this “door”, but probably they don’t understand yet which companies have the best position for going inside and how and when the markets will change.
Latest weekend gossip & rumors from various Blogs:
Apple, Steve Jobs
Inside company message: “Google… We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them…” – “Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5…” [ Engadget ]
Nokia, Mark Squires
As a Head of Social Media, he was mainly confused by Apple’s statement that it’s the biggest mobile device manufacturer, surpassing Nokia in combined revenue on media players, phones and laptops. Mark argues that the accepted definition for “mobile devices” excludes laptops, and goes on to mention the undisputed fact that Nokia’s still number one when it comes to number of devices sold. [ Engadget ]
Netflix, CEO Reed Hastings
He says that mobile devices aren’t a priority for his company yet. They’re fighting the good fight of the large screen, and once they feel comfortable in their various efforts there, then they’ll move on to small screens. Netflix hasn’t done or submitted an iPhone application, but Hastings did mention that he was optimistic that if Netflix did get into the game, the app would be approved for the App Store, and that it would run on both the iPhone and iPad. [ Engadget ]
Nintendo, CEO Satura Iwata
He took a much more directly critical approach to the device, calling it a “bigger iPod Touch”, and that Apple delivered “no surprises”. In the same interview he expressed skepticism as to the value of bringing a high definition Wii on the market, as well as expressing doubts about 3D glasses-based gaming. Iwata is clearly a tough man to please. [ Engadget ]
E-Ink, CEO Russ Wilcox
He says dedicated e-readers will outsell iPads due to “simple economics”, and that the iPad is “great entertainment device”, but it’s “not the world’s best reading device”. His criticisms, mostly in juxtaposition to Kindle-style devices, abound, including price, weight, backlight and so on. He’s right on the money about the shortfalls of a straightforward comparison, but we wonder if consumers will feel the same?
Other discussion on the web
Steve Jobs @ Al Things Digitals interview:
“Publishers are actually withholding their books from Amazon because they’re not happy.” [ All things Digitals ]
Amazon CEO:
“Millions of people now own Kindles! They sold 3 million devices. And Kindle owners read, a lot. When we have both editions, we sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books. This is year-to-date and includes only paid books — free Kindle books would make the number even higher. It’s been an exciting 27 months.“ [ Business Insider ]
By the way…..
Big Brother? No big Apple!
I was surprised when this weekend I checked the Google Analytics of my modest and simple blog magazine and discovered that my article “The iPad is not the innovation but….” attracted a good % of new users, especially APPLE! It confirmed how their PR Office has a great organization to check the web Apple-discussions in the net and probably… guide them.
