<Unless you can get every news source to the paid for stories model (meaning you have no choice in order to read news), this will fail miserably IMO>
I have noticed that the Wall Street Times and the Financial Times are suffering terribly.
I think there are going to be a lot of things tried. We are on the cusp of a new paradigm in computing, and new paradigms in how we get stuff and pay for it.
There was a proposal long, long ago - someone here may remember it, by an early net pioneer suggesting a model of micropayments. As I recall it, if you clicked on certain content, you'd pay a very small amount of money to access it - pennies. A mechanism would be created to see that the aggregation of all those pennies would arrive to their rightful owner. Maybe we'll move toward that.
I think whichever platform comes up with the best way to connect content owners with folks who want access to that content - for a reasonable price - will do very well.
I think that many content providers are really going to like the iTunes store and in-app content sales. I think many consumers are going to like that also.
Not everyone, of course, but enough to generate some serious money.
Apps alone were a 4 billion dollar business last year - growing at a good rate. Imagine the potential for in-app content purchase dollar amount.
As a shareholder, I like where Apple is in this mix. We have the biggest, baddest e-commerce site for digital content and Apps - not to mention the Apple Store and the Apple Retail stores and the gross margins, and the best brand name in electronics. Oh, I forgot to mention the rapidly growing Macintosh sales and everything that Apple sells
Yeah, I like where Apple is in the mix. |
