Courier: Dreams are made of this

It is no secret that Microsoft, the biggest company in the computing world, earns all its revenue from just two products Windows and Office. Seeing as how integrated that is in any office or business worldwide that is unlikely to be under threat for a very long time. They currently account for just over 88% of the home market, Apple with 7.5% and the rest being divided up by various Linux and mobile OS devices. That 88% might be a low estimate as the NDP recently releases figures that suggest 80% of US Mac households also have a Windows machine.

Where Microsoft has repeatedly failed in the home is with new devices and services, Zune and the Zune player is a also run, you would be hard pressed to find someone in your own group of friends and colleagues that have one. Windows Mobile might have got a early foothold in the business world but the biggest player by far is RIM with their Blackberry who is ultimate king in that field. The one area where they have excelled beyond expectation is the Xbox 360.

Sure it is dogged by some of the worst hardware design flaws with its RROD, some customer's have experienced machines failing more than once and has cost Microsoft a staggering $1 billion in warranty repairs and climbing. Despite that people continue to buy new machines even after multiple failures which is a testament to how good the games and its Xbox live integrated systems is. It has even held its own against the current King Sony who is slowly catching up in terms of sale. But despite all the effort the amount of revenue generated by the 360 project is insignificant to what else MS does.

Till now.

If you haven't already seen the concept video for Courier have a look below, this is a stunning piece of design and unlike the Apple iPad Microsoft have a very clear idea of what Courier is about and what you can so with it. For those of you that followed the iPad unveiling there really was a "That is a giant iPhone" reaction from most. Now it is unfair to compare the two devices seeing as Apple actually have a product ready to ship, April 3^rd for those of you who have not heard, and Microsoft only has vapourware, but you have to admit if they could bring that to market it would be more than a formidable foe for all comers, in what is turning into the year of the Tablet.

While Apple were showing of a giant iPhone and its new features such as its iBook Store Micorsoft have really captured people's imaginations and showed what really can be done with a tablet. This really does seem to be a new and vibrant Microsoft one that has finally learnt that that can't just shrink Windows and put it on every device as they have recently shown with Windows Phone 7 Series, which is rumoured to be the same platform that Courier will be based on.

Watch the video and decide for yourself, whereas before the World Mobile Congress I was excited to see what Apple would have in store with their tablet, iPhone 4 and OS 4.0 my enthusiasm is now squarely aimed at Windows Phone 7 Series (not the most elegant of names) and Courier even if the actual hardware doesn't exist. Twin screens in a clamshell setting make it nice and portable and hopefully it will not be as closed as the Apple offering and developers will get to grips with and produce some unique software that will really put the device through its paces.

eBooks: The new battle ground.

In 2001 Apple launched a product that has gone on to become one of the biggest mp3 players in the world, and revolutionised the way in which we not only consume music but purchase it as well. I am of course talking about the Apple iPod. It was by no means the first portable mp3 player on the market, even today it still is not considered the best or even the best sounding player yet Apple have managed to not only craft a brand that has fans even fiercer then rabid dogs but have managed to make the term iPod mean mp3 player.

In 2009 Apple’s Phil Schiller announced total cumulative sales of iPods had exceeded 220 million units and accounted for 73.8 percent of all mp3 players. These are some pretty impressive figures but the true success behind the iPod is the iTunes store. Opened in 2003 Apple revolutionised the sale and distribution of music forever and now with the launch of the iPad imminent they are hoping to do the same with books.

But there is already a battle in full swing being waged here, a David versus Goliath between Amazon and the Publishing world. But on closer inspection it is not immediately obvious to tell who the Goliath is and who is David.
In one corner we have the Publishers, using an age old business model that probably hasn’t changed much since the mass printing began. They have been happily continuing to do business without the trouble that music and film have had to endure with digital piracy. They have their set negotiated rates with authors and set rates with printers.

In the other corner we have Amazon, a worldwide retailer that pretty much sells anything you could want, who have their hand in DVD rentals and even digital music distribution and are currently pretty much the only distributor of ebooks or least the biggest by a country mile.

And herein lays the problem.

Recently Harpcollins, spurred by Apples promise of being able to sell books at $15, have renegotiated their deal with Amazon who has been selling their ebooks at $9.99. Happercollins, part of the News Corp Empire, objected at Amazon setting prices of their books and even threatened to pull all their titles from the site if their demands were not met. Amazon buy these books at $12.99 so are actually selling these at a loss, which not unheard of in the retail world, and regardless of the sale price Happercollins still receive their cut.

Now a lot about this situation has been written in the press but something that almost all the news sites and blogs seem to have avoided in all of this is, how can a ebook cost $9.99 let alone $15? You no longer have the overheads that exist with a physical book, the manufacturing cost of a ebook is significantly less, there are no printing costs, there are no transportation costs, no reprinting costs and the book can never be out of print or stock.

While other publishers are now moving to get the same deal for themselves the real issue here seems to be that Amazon is simply the only game in town and has a virtual monopoly of electronic book sales and unless the publishers act now they could lose control of their own product and I am sure Apple are rubbing their hands together at the prospect of not only allowing publishers to set their own prices but making bundles of cash at the same time to add to the bundles they already have sitting in the bank form iPod and iPhone sales.

I really can see a future where publishers are completely bypassed as authors sell their work directly via retailers such as Amazon who already have a self publish platform and allow the author to get a much higher royalty return then is possible with traditional publishing.
But just when you thought it was safe to jump on the ebook bandwagon there is one more contender attempting to jump into the fray, the company that everybody loves to love, Google.

Goole’s plans are so ambitious that they make Apple, Amazon and the entire publishing world seem like small potatoes. Google want to scan every book on earth and make it electronically searchable via the internet! Let me say that again in case you missed it every book on earth!

Okay that maybe a slight exaggeration on my part but that doesn’t make their plans any less ambitious. They have already run into trouble with this at the first hurdle which you can read a brief description of on the Free Software Foundations website http://www.fsf.org/news/2010-02-gbs-objection

Whichever way this goes it is going to be an exciting fight. The real question is are reading fans ready to give up low cost paperbacks to expensive ereaders, that run out of battery at the most crucial stage and on top of that contend with all the DRM that goes along with buying a ebook?