Linked List: February 28, 2011

Monday, 28 February 2011

New York Times Magazine Profiles Heather Armstrong ★

Speaking of successful indie writers, this weekend’s New York Times Magazine featured a long profile of Heather “Dooce” Armstrong, by Lisa Belkin. I’ll tell you what I don’t like about it. The title: “Queen of the Mommy Bloggers”. I think “mommy blogger” is a term intended to be dismissive. Belkin writes of Dooce.com:

By talking about poop and spit up. And stomach viruses and washing-machine repairs. And home design, and high-strung dogs, and reality television, and sewer-line disasters, and chiropractor visits. And countless other banalities of one mother’s eclectic life that, for some reason, hundreds of thousands of strangers tune in, regularly, to read.

You know what that mysterious “some reason” is? Armstrong is a fucking great writer, that’s what.

E-Books and Successful Indie Writers ★

Speaking of buying lots of Kindle e-books, here’s an interesting story from Eli James:

Amanda Hocking is 26 years old. She has 9 self-published books to her name, and sells 100,000+ copies of those ebooks per month. She has never been traditionally published. This is her blog. And it’s no stretch to say – at $3 per book/70% per sale for the Kindle store – that she makes a lot of money from her monthly book sales. (Perhaps more importantly: a publisher on the private Reading2.0 mailing list has said, to effect: there is no traditional publisher in the world right now that can offer Amanda Hocking terms that are better than what she’s currently getting, right now on the Kindle store, all on her own.)

Disintermediation, disruption, and independence.

Update: USA Today reports that Hocking sold 450,000 books in January alone.

Expanding the iPhone’s Market Share ★

Eric Savitz, reporting on a research note from analyst Toni Sacconaghi, who had an interview with Tim Cook last week:

The analyst says Cook “appeared to reaffirm the notion that Apple is likely to develop lower priced offerings” to expand the market for the iPhone. Cook said the company is planning “clever things” to address the prepaid market, and that Apple did not want its products to be “just for the rich,” and that the company is “not ceding any market.”

The hard thing, as I’ve said in the past, is getting the monthly service bill for smartphones down. Virgin Mobile is leading the way, at least here in the U.S. — imagine a $149 iPhone with one of those plans. Anyone who thinks Apple won’t expand from the high-end down, price-wise, isn’t thinking about how the company captured the media player market with the iPod a decade ago. Cheaper iPhones are inevitable.

Tim Bray: Making Money in Mobile ★

Interesting overview of the nascent mobile software world. I thought this was an interesting juxtaposition, though. First:

Having said all that, I deeply believe that the app-sales business sucks. Selling anything on a one-time basis at a price below $10 is historically the kind of business that’s been owned by companies like Walmart. I acknowledge that it’s working for some people, but it’s just not where I’d want to be.

Then, later in the piece, Bray writes:

The other free app that sends my money to its provider is Kindle (and we’re talking serious money, I just spent $8 for a book that went across my radar while I was writing this piece).

Why isn’t selling apps for under $10 as good a business as selling books for under $10? I don’t think the app-sales business is easy, not by a long shot, but Apple is proving that it doesn’t have to suck.

NZ Developers Supporting Christchurch Quake Victims ★

Great apps for a great cause:

Until 5 March, 100% of the proceeds of these 38 apps from some of New Zealand’s top software developers will go directly to the New Zealand Red Cross.

Getting Notified ★

Sebastiaan de With on the notification UIs for iOS, Android, and WebOS.

Random House Will Adopt Agency E-Book Pricing Model ★

Carolyn Kellogg, reporting for The LA Times Jacket Copy blog:

Apple encouraged the agency pricing model for ebooks sold through its ebook store for the iPad. Up until now, books published by Random House — including Dan Brown’s massive bestsellers — have not been available for Apple’s iPad. Instead, users have purchased them for the Kindle.

Random House is set to begin using the agency model Tuesday, March 1 — perhaps not so coincidentally, the day before Apple’s expected launch of the second-generation iPad.

Space Shuttle Launch, Viewed From an Airplane ★

Amazing perspective.

What Microsoft Can Learn From Mac OS X Lion ★

Good piece by Paul Thurrott on Lion. Here, he praises Apple for having a single version:

One version is not just enough, it’s optimal from the customer point of view. Just ask Apple: It offers just one version of Mac OS X. It’s called Mac OS X. Not Mac OS X Media Center Edition or Mac OS X Arbitrarily Limited Edition. Just Mac OS X.

Now, Apple really makes two versions of Mac OS X, one for Mac desktops and laptops (Mac OS X) and one for servers (Mac OS X Server). But I see something in the Lion developer preview that just makes my heart weep: It includes both the client and server versions in a single install, and the server code is actually installed as if it were a feature or add-on for client. Oh my. Now, as unlikely as it is that Apple would ever ship the final version of Lion in this same configuration, you have to dream.

Actually, I’m pretty sure this is Apple’s plan: the separate version of Mac OS X Server is going away, and the consumer release of Lion will be just like the developer preview, with the server version available as an installation-time option.

Also, and I mean this sincerely, I think Thurrott makes some good points about the convolution of modes like Dashboard, Mission Control, Launchpad, Spaces, etc.

Secrets of Thunderbolt and Lion ★

Great roundup of news bits from Glenn Fleishman.

Filed Away for Future Claim Chowder ★

Christopher Dawson:

So when will Apple finally jump on the train? If Flash isn’t a universal standard, it’s about as close as you can get for web multimedia. […]

I give Apple a year until they cave. Android tablets will just be too cool and too useful for both entertainment and enterprise applications if they don’t.

Flash is cool and useful for enterprise apps?