Jan
28
iPad, you ponder
Filed Under Blog, eBook, Education, Industry Analysis, internet, Publishing, Uncategorized, Workflow | 2 Comments
Well, OK , I haven’t actually got an iPad, or been in the same room as one, but I did see the launch and the demos and I am left wondering. At the same time, the annual Gartner predictions reached the top of the pile. And since I still had the thought that, given the truth of jokes, it was at least possible that Steve Jobs would launch a revolutionary digitally-enhanced running shoe called the iRan, I clearly have not been paying nearly enough attention to the Press (or buying enough repetitive articles).
In my briefcase I have a netbook – ideal for hotel internet access – and a Sony eBook Reader, plus of course the ubiquitous Blackberry. Each of these devices was bought to save weight, since as I have got heavier I want the world that I carry around to get lighter. The next device that I want to buy is one that combines the functions of all of these three at the weight of the heaviest. So how does the iPad match my demand curve? Well , it sort of …doesn’t.
Colour is not my high demand, since most of the sad things I read are in black and white. Price is not my issue , since while I want the cheapest and most effective I can point to a long career of buying over-priced innovation in a triumph of hope over experience. New functionality is not my issue either: I am now inured to the fact that with any device, including my highly computerized car and the digital controller on the heating system and the new hands free phone installation here, I will never live long enough to understand and implement all of the functionality that cleverer men than I have built in, so innovation and replacement cycles are designed to stop me worrying about that, and bring me to a new device, newly replete with all the things that I shall never learn to use.
Which brings me to Gartner and my ardent wish for the iPad to succeed. Gartner’s range of projections is as impressive as ever, since long gone are the days when pure wishful thinking was the only fix we had on these markets. Today, the talk is far more sober and grounded, but no less startling (http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1278413). For example, the realization here that by 2014 more than 3 billion people on the planet will be able to transact electronically (“transact” , not use a phone) is critical to our understanding of the global networked society. In that year we are on target for a 90% mobile penetration rate (56% Africa, 68% Asia), and 6.5 billion mobile connections. By 2013, mobile device connections, at 1.82 billion units, will overtake PCs at 1.72 billion as the primary connection to the network. If you are thinking now of preparing your web presence at a future point for mobile optimization then you are almost too late: this is the last call for legacy conversion. The people who succeed in 2013 are running hard now, and are probably not carrying the burdens of legacy web publishing, let alone legacy print publishing.
But the paragraph that caught my eye began ” By 2015, context will be as influential to mobile consumer services and relationships as search engines are to the Web”. And, later on “context will provide the key to delivering hyperpersonalized experiences across smartphones” and “context will center on observing patterns, particularly location, presence and social relationships…. Whereas search was based on a pull of information from the web, context-enriched services will, in many cases, prepopulate or push information to users”.
What phases me is having Gartner write digital publishing strategy, but in a vital sense they are quite right. Push and Pull were central to the debate in the early web days, but faded out in the great Age of Search. In the post-Google world, where search is just another tool, Push returns, wrapped in the guise of personalization. Will My iPad, or its elaborations, do that for me? This is the key question.
There is a sting in Gartner’s tail. I will quote it in full:
“The most powerful position in the context business model will be a context provider. Web, device, social platforms, telecom service providers, enterprise software vendors and communication infrastructure vendors will compete to become significant context providers during the next three years. Any Web vendor that does not become a context provider risks handing over effective customer ownership to a context provider, which would impact the vendor’s mobile and classic Web businesses.”
Any Web vendor ? If you are a content or information service provider, This Means You. The competitive struggle for survival in network publishing intensifies, and the only recourse is to hybrid models and full service solution provision. There is no ” Just Content” position anymore, unless you want to be a supplier to the sub-contractors of the people who supply the services.
Nov
25
Battle of the Indices
Filed Under B2B, Blog, Industry Analysis, STM, Workflow | 1 Comment
Have a quick look at what is happening in the oil information markets. Major player Platts (a part of McGraw-Hill’s information division) produces the pricing data which underlies the valuation of West Texas Intermediate as traded on Nymex (the New York Mercantile Exchange). In turn, this index is used by the Saudis as their benchmark in pricing their crude oil exported by Aramco.
“Is” became “was” this month. From January 2010, the new measure of oil pricing for the Saudis will be the Argus Sour Crude Index, produced by a UK player that is a comparative minnow to McGraw’s Platts. Neither company is responsible directly for the change, which has happened because West Texas prices began to veer away from Brent Crude prices for technical reasons that nobody appears to understand or admit. But one up for the little guy, and a real revenue stream in providing access to the underlying pricing data.
Then a month elapses. Platts announces a new index, to cover oil production from the East Siberian fields. ESPO pricing is expected to be an exciting new prospect in oil price indexation, alongside Platts flagship indices, Platts Dubai and Platts Dated Brent. All part of the cut and thrust of competition in the energy sector, one of the most vibrant B2B information sectors of all (www.platts.com).
So why I am burdening you with all this unnecessary information? Simply as a way of underlining, if needs be, that like accreditation in training, index publishing is becoming an interesting value phenomenon. It creates lock-in around which workflow activities and value-add analytics can be built. It gives brand focus and recognition. It provides contract opportunities to supply and maintain service points on client intranets. In truth, it is sexier than it sounds.
But it is not without risk. As this story shows, you can lose an index and you can invent a new one where none existed before. Those who have them are inherently more valuable than those who do not. And the principle of indexation spreads far and wide across B2B information; if you can benchmark pricing you are in a position of strength. So why did the FT sell out its ownership of the FTSE , and why is Murdoch doing the same with the Dow? Answers on a postcard: entries including the words “death wish” will not qualify, as being too obvious.
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