Neven Mrgan on Whether Apple Will Get Into the Publishing Business

Interesting piece from Neven Mrgan, disagreeing with Andy Ihnatko’s guess that Apple, rather than get into the business of publishing e-books and periodical content, will simply let publishers make their own apps for distributing said content. Neven hopes Andy is wrong, so that it is easier for writers and other non-developers to publish. I do too.

Here’s my other thought: the old-growth print industry — books, magazines, and newspapers — have shown zero aptitude to date to produce compelling designs and business models for digital content. Left to themselves, they’d botch this too. And who wants a dozen different apps for accessing e-books? As Craig Hockenberry tweeted, “It’s like asking bands to release an app for each album. We need MP3 for words.”

★ Friday, 8 January 2010