1. Dec 1st, 2006

    Rounded Corners – 68

    Why you need a 30″ screen.

    Puzzled. Please explain to me why I would want to pay for content that’s crippled, and provide bandwidth for other people who want that content, and go through a lousy download experience, and I can’t even start playing until it downloaded in full? Next to the fun and instant gratification of YouTube, BitTorrent is life sentence with hard labor. Obviously worth it if you’re getting the content for free. But how do you make people pay for this?

    Wise words. Once more, I turn the mic to Pete Lacey: ” Maybe you don’t work for or with a Global 2000 company, so I’ll let you in on a little secret: They Can’t Hear You! … The second is because business-oriented technologist refuse to beleive that simple solutions apply to their problem set. … Certainly no technology that’s been sitting under their noses for the last ten years can ever handle the needs that enterprises have!” Excellent read, and sadly based on a true story.

    “This is the biggest launch in our company’s history. That’s for sure.” I’ll give Ballmer credit for that. But if I was invested in Microsoft, I would expect something tangile, like, “this is the biggest money maker in our company’s history”. But I guess if you don’t have any good news to tell …

    XML explained in 15 seconds or less. I already feel more knowledgable.

    Printable PDF | Posted by Assaf Filed in general 5 Comments »

    1. Dec 1st, 2006

      Sterling Camden

      Yeah, I can think of a few “biggest launches” that were far from the most profitable. Doing too much at once can be disastrous, but maybe Microsoft is a big enough boat to weather the storm.

    2. Dec 1st, 2006

      Assaf

      I’m betting it will also be the last of its kind. Microsoft will manage to recoup the investment from obsolesence, but that’s not where the money is. The money is in profit and growth, and if the stock stays flat, employees find the door.

      Ballmer will quietly leave and no one will shed a tear. Someone at Microsoft will write an internal memo, for the cover of NYT: “how we lost on all fronts by focusing only on Win/Office”. Microsoft will slim down, do a turn around and come back as a different company.

    3. Dec 2nd, 2006

      Sterling Camden

      Once again following in IBM’s footsteps.

    4. Dec 3rd, 2006

      Crosbie Fitch

      But how do you make people pay for this?

      You can’t.

      A better question would be: “What can you provide via BitTorrent that people would queue up to pay for – without legal obligation or penalty for non-payment?”

      You could distribute art that an audience had already paid for – that they had procured into the public domain out of their own self interest.

      Hard for many to believe, but such art, artists, and audiences do exist.

      Just imagine it: art that people actually want to pay for. Art so good, people want to reward the artist.

    5. Dec 3rd, 2006

      Assaf

      To answer that question, I don’t hesitate paying when the price is right. That’s determined by the value.

      Being trusted to use it on multiple devices is part of that value I’m expecting to have.

      When it comes to open source software, I leave my BitTorrent client running to make bandwidth available for other people.

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