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- SanDisk slotMusic Cards Will Soon Be Known As The Digital Dodo Bird
This morning, SanDisk announced its next foray into the world of digital music. Too bad this digital music idea, like their previous ones, will be going the way of the dodo bird.
SanDisk’s slotMusic product is a 1GB microSD card loaded with an album. You purchase the card from your local Wal-Mart or Best Buy and then insert the card into any device that will accept the card (such as a mobile phone). All music will be encoded in high-quality MP3 format, free of any sort of DRM. Currently Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG and EMI are on board.
So why, exactly, will SanDisk’s newest baby go the way of the prehistoric pigeon?
First, the format in which the music is being distributed significantly reduces the number of potential buyers. Sure, the fact that the MP3’s are DRM free is a great plus, but the fact that the songs are distributed on a microSD card increases the hassle-factor exponentially. The barrier to entry for these sorts of things has got to be as close to zero as possible. Not to mention that sales of physical media are on the way out with CD’s seeing an almost 50% decline since 2000.Second, the music selection on launch is dismal at best. Only 29 albums (around 300 songs) will be available compared to that of iTunes’ 8 million songs. The slotMusic setup just doesn’t scale. If/When they get in to the 100+ album mark, it will be extremely costly to stock that much shelf space.
Pricing wise, at $7 to $10 a pop, these will be quite affordable. But from an economics stand point, I can’t imagine SanDisk possibly making enough to cover costs after they’ve paid the music companies, manufacturing costs, and marketing. Plus, who really needs dozens of microSD cards hanging around?
I give this 6 months at best before they are discontinued.
Переслать - AP Mobile News Proves Quite Popular
This past week the Associated Press announced that their Mobile News Network received some 16 million page views for the month of August. How does this relate to Apple? 95% of those 16 million page views originated from iPhone and iPod touch users via Mobile Safari and the AP Mobile News Network iPhone/iPod touch app.
The Mobile News Network initially launched on May 5 which was (and currently still is) accessible via apnews.com/mobile and then on July 10 they launched their free iPhone/iPod touch app. Currently their application is the 2nd most popular news reader, behind NYTimes, and is the highest rated news reader.
Here are a few interesting usage statistics:
- Heavy usage starts at around 7 a.m. and grows steadily until around 10 p.m.
- Weekends tend to see the highest traffic
- The average users views 37 pages per month
Currently the Mobile News Network can only be accessed via apnews.com/mobile or the iPhone/iPod touch app, but there is a Blackberry application in the works.
What is your favorite method for feeding your news addiction?
Переслать - TAB Writing Positions Available
We’re looking to expand our already amazing staff of writers!
These are paid, freelance positions that will almost certainly guarantee you world fame and fortune. Okay, so the world fame and fortune part isn’t guaranteed, but you never know!
If you are interested, please contact us and include examples of previous technology related writing and we’ll be in touch.
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