They don’t pay bills in Russia, it’s all free.
- Repo Man
The Guardian News Agency has brought in more than $275,000 with their $3.99 app, says CMS Wire. At such a rate, they can hope to see about US$ 3.2 million a year.
But mobile websites are better than mobile apps, says Jason Munson, General Manager of Siteworx, an award-winning interactive agency.
In his two part article, Why Mobile Websites Are Better Than Mobile Apps (Part 2), Munson explains the advantages of a mobile website over a dedicated mobile web app:
- It removes barriers of entry
- It increases your brand’s reach
- Graceful Degradation of the User Experience
- You can easily refine and publish changes to the user interface
- It’s compatible with Content Management systems.
Still, mobile applications often provide a better quality of experience with a customized interface offering additional social networking and other features. The prime directive: Users come first.
The future of publishing is fast becoming topic “A” in business circles, says Money Magazine. Publishers were panicked, says the New Yorker’s Ken Auletta, when Amazon accounted for eighty per cent of all electronic-book sales and the price became established at $9.99, by the end of last year.
Xplana says 1 Out of 5 textbooks will be digital by 2014. Although they account for only an estimated three to five per cent of the market, e-book sales increased a hundred and seventy-seven per cent in 2009, according to Ken Auletta, and may account for between twenty-five and fifty per cent of all books sold in the future.
The WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete toolkit to help mobilize your WordPress site and blog. It includes a mobile switcher to select themes based on the type of user that is visiting the site. [It's about time Dailywireless offered a mobile version, huh].
WordPress for iPhone OS is now optimized to take advantage of the iPad’s new user interface. It lets content producers use the iPad for developing content.
How long before tablet growth explodes? Not long say professional guessers.
According to a Morgan Stanley report, tablet sales are expected to go from 8 million in 2010 to 49 million in 2013. But that figure could be conservative. Apple is expected to sell 10 million iPads this year.
IPad sales could reach one-million this week — only 3 weeks since the iPad became available on April 3. Gartner says half the PCs purchased for users under 15 will have touchscreens by 2015.
Apple has access to 125 million credit cards, which would make it easy for consumers to buy books on impulse. It would also “create a competitor” for Amazon. The next bombshell for publishers may be Android Market for e-books and media.
NPR expects their popularity to continue to climb with the introduction of the API to station sites and the launch of the iPad and other tablets. They distribute the same content in many forms to many destinations with hardly any extra effort. “While some media companies, such as News Corp, attempt to block their content from distribution, the NPR API seems to be making access to its content widespread,” Mike Melanson wrote on ReadWriteWeb.
TechCrunch says 800,000 U.S. households have cut the cable cord in favor of watching tv online. Why pay $99/month for 100 channels when Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, ABC, and others provide everything you need. On demand.
Comcast could soon offer mobile video via WiMAX Android tablets for $10-$15/month. A free app brings you in. What’s the difference between a Boxee Box and Web Tablets? Both may thrive with a subscription model.
Newspapers, magazines and cable won’t be “free” on tablets. The App Store is the secret sauce that could enable profitability for publishers.
Free mobile blogs or mobile apps could be a gateway to subscription e-books, textbooks, magazines, television programming or live, hyper-local multi-media.
With less restrictions, lower costs and open content creation tools, Android tablets could upset the Apple cart. Do the math.
Panorama, a 328-page paper meant as a celebration of the print form, demonstrates why newspapers are still uniquely relevant in the digital era.
Related Tablet stories on Dailywireless include; Intel Ports Android to Atom CPU, Google Tablet: Android or What?, Tablet Revolution!, Mobile Ads for Apple, Google & Yahoo, Kindle Announces 70% Royalty Option, Self Publishing on the iPad, Kindle App for iPad, iPad Features Audio Dictation, Mobile News via Paid Apps, E-Textbooks: How Big?, Nozzl: Local News Streaming Live, The $99 Tablet, Tablet News, Mobile News via Paid Apps, Producing Olympic Multi-Media, HyperLocal: There’s an App for That, Neighborhood News: Big Time in Seattle, Coming Soon: Tablet Wars, Rental Bikes: Free with Location-based Apps?, Comix As Life, HP Slate, Publishers Revolt over iPad Restrictions, Kindle App for iPad, Tablets and Three Bears and Apple Launching Pad.
