3 ms·
Micropayments for news: The holy grail or just a dangerous delusion?
- ErrantX 17y agoThe Itunes argument is innacurate (I think pg gets it wrong too when he makes a slightly different point in his publishing essay http://www.paulgraham.com/publishing.html http://www.paulgraham.com/publishing.html). The key to Itunes is not technically speaking a monopoly: it is convenience. You can obtain digital media from any other source and import it into Itunes. Where Apple hold the monopoly is in the path to the Ipod (aka Itunes). Using THAT monopoly they can provide a convenient way to get your music within Itunes - at a low enough cost (a point pg made) for it often to be worth it. Apple's convenience in Itunes arises out of their monopoly; but there is no reason it cant come about in another way in the publishing field. If we sit and look at what is really inconvenient for consumers of online publishing and try to solve that we might have another way to monetize it. (I realise feed readers is potentially a solution to one of the biggest inconveniences)
- diN0bot 17y agodude, it's iTunes. (seriously. it's like reading a name literally versus the immediate brand and big-picture recognition of seeing a logo.)