Publishers eye Apple's tablet; Schmidt on board resignation

[AppleInsider]

Google CEO Eric Schmidt denied that a federal investigation prompted his resignation from the Apple Board of directors; and a consortium of magazine publishers hope to create their own store to sell content on devices like Apple's rumored tablet.

Publishers planning for Apple's tablet

Magazine publishers are preparing for devices like Apple's long-rumored tablet as a possible new revenue opportunity, as the print business continues to struggle.

A group led by Time Inc. looks to create a digital store for magazines and other publications to sell their content in a digital format, according to the Financial Times. According to the report, "Apple's forthcoming tablet device" is one of the devices publishers are targeting, along with Amazon's Kindle. The report notes that Time and others have had talks with Apple about putting their magazines on the tablet.

However, the report alleges that Apple is reluctant about the approach the publishers are looking to take. One source with the Cupertino, Calif., company reportedly said the proposals are "their business model," not Apple's.

"The publishers are intent on remaining masters of their own destiny, while Apple does not want to change the percentage it takes from content sellers every time something new comes along," the report said.

The story supports rumors from earlier this week that Apple had contacted print publications, including a meeting with numerous magazines, about its anticipated tablet device. That report said that representatives from The New York Times also spoke with Apple about the tablet, and textbook publishers McGraw Hill and Oberlin Press have been working to put their content on iTunes in a DRMed format that would allow use for a period of time.

Schmidt denies pressure to resign

When Schmidt resigned from the Apple board in August, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs cited Google's further encroachment on Apple's core businesses with Android and Chrome OS. However, both companies were the subject of a Federal Trade Commission investigation for potential antitrust ties.

Despite that investigation, Schmidt said he was not pressured to resign from the Apple Board of Directors, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Schmidt went further and said that Arthur Levinson, who currently serves on the board of both companies, should not resign his position.

Following Schmidt's resignation, the FTC stated it was continuing its investigation due to Levinson's presence on both boards.

Schmidt also denied tension between Google and Apple, saying outright: "We love the iPhone."

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Ireland]

Apple will never make a phone.

[desides]

Schmidt also denied tension between Google and Apple, saying outright: "We love the iPhone."

Of course Google loves the iPhone: Google is the default search and map source. Google is pretty much the gateway through which iPhone users access the Internet, all without Google having to lift a finger on their end. Apple does the work for them.

No wonder Google Voice was rejected.

[mstone]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Schmidt also denied tension between Google and Apple, saying outright: "We love the iPhone."

I wonder how much love the iPhone will have for Google Wave once it is released. I have been working with HTML5 code and found Safari is very problematic with anything drag and drop related which is one of the hallmarks of Wave and HTML5. Understandably the basic usage method of touch interfaces is If you hold and drag that is considered a scroll/pan not an object drag. I don't personally have Android so I'm not certain how Cupcake handles HTML5 drag and drop but Apple needs to address this in an upcoming release of iPhone OS or Google is going to eat their lunch.

[DaveGee]

Originally Posted by mstone

I wonder how much love the iPhone will have for Google Wave once it is released. I have been working with HTML5 code and found Safari is very problematic with anything drag and drop related which is one of the hallmarks of Wave and HTML5. Understandably the basic usage method of touch interfaces is If you hold and drag that is considered a scroll/pan not an object drag. I don't personally have Android so I'm not certain how Cupcake handles HTML5 drag and drop but Apple needs to address this in an upcoming release of iPhone OS or Google is going to eat their lunch.

Given Apples behavior as of late I would never expect to see Google Wave working on any device Apple has dictatorship control over... or to put it another way, unless Google can do it entirely in confines of a web app you can forget it ever working.

[DaveGee]

I find this comment a little odd...

and textbook publishers McGraw Hill and Oberlin Press have been working to put their content on iTunes in a DRMed format that would allow use for a period of time.

Sound to me like they are going to... what start rigging their books with a time limit and if you want it again you gotta re-purchase it?

Dave

[Cubert]

My girlfriend has a MyTouch Android phone (due to her contract with T-Mobile, otherwise she would join me in the iPhone world). There are some nice features to it (especially the unlock feature), but so many things are not intuitive at all and require research to figure out how to do so many things that should be simple.

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by DaveGee

Given Apples behavior as of late I would never expect to see Google Wave working on any device Apple has dictatorship control over... or to put it another way, unless Google can do it entirely in confines of a web app you can forget it ever working.

I was under the impression Wave is entirely used within a browser by a client and Safari already works fine with it. IE may well have issues but Safari and Firefox work now.

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by DaveGee

I find this comment a little odd...



Sound to me like they are going to... what start rigging their books with a time limit and if you want it again you gotta re-purchase it?

Dave

That is a whole new take on 'Having to get the book back to the Library by tomorrow!'

[mstone]

Originally Posted by digitalclips

I was under the impression Wave is entirely used within a browser by a client and Safari already works fine with it. IE may well have issues but Safari and Firefox work now.

True, I apologize to hijacking the thread but before it gets totally of track, I meant MOBILE Safari is where the issue is not the desktop version of Safari

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by desides

Of course Google loves the iPhone: Google is the default search and map source.

given the recent buy of Placebase(?) Google might be losing some of that default.

as for the board stuff. I can buy that the FTC didn't come to them and demand he resign, but the thought that it could come eventually and be very nasty might have led to a 'quit before fired' sitch.

Originally Posted by DaveGee

Sound to me like they are going to... what start rigging their books with a time limit and if you want it again you gotta re-purchase it?

more like how videos are on itunes. only the 'authorized' buyer can use the file. prevents copying it and giving it to someone else for free.

and considering how huge a business textbooks are, it makes sense.

[aaarrrgggh]

Originally Posted by DaveGee

I find this comment a little odd...



Sound to me like they are going to... what start rigging their books with a time limit and if you want it again you gotta re-purchase it?

Dave

When will they learn? First movie companies, then the music industry, now publishers try the same fools errand. Pay-per-use models don't work for things consumers are used to owning, even if they will only use them once.

DRM is bad in all forms, but time-sensitive restrictions make the jump to useless.

...as if it isn't bad enough locking it to a single device.

(Ironically, I won't buy my mom a kindle because she loves the library. She needs one, but it destroys a critical element of literature for her when you have to buy everything...)

[mdriftmeyer]

textbook publishers McGraw Hill and Oberlin Press have been working to put their content on iTunes in a DRMed format that would allow use for a period of time.

I'll stick to buying hardbound Textbooks. I know I own it and won't be dealing with a rental.

[DarkRail]

I dislike DRM as much as the next guy, but DRM'd textbooks sound like a great model.

Right now students typically pay outrageous prices for dirty, beat-up, used textbooks. Then, a few months later, they sell those textbooks back at a substantially reduced price. Wouldn't it be far better to pay a smaller price and rent a digital copy for those few months? And imagine using those textbooks on a really pleasant device--a device that does for reading and note-taking what the iPhone did for pocket-computing.

Makes me a little sad I don't have any reason to buy textbooks. When I was in school, buying the filthy used ones for $100/each always felt like a scam.

[sheff]

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

I'll stick to buying hardbound Textbooks. I know I own it and won't be dealing with a rental.

Totally in agreement there. I can buy a physical book, use it and then sell it to make 20-60 percent of the price back (depending on how long I use it and how pristine I keep it). Or I can keep it forever if I like it. Renting books, even with a 20% discount would be stupid at best. Maybe if they were 10% of market cost there could be some applications for this type of ownership. But from what I read it would be $80 for $100 dollar book for a year. Really now what I am looking for.

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Google's further encroachment on Apple's core businesses with Android and Chrome OS.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

Agreed about the encroachment and copying of the features, but I look at it this way. Apple maintains the high end of the market with the cool new features, great user interface, making both hardware and software for their phone. Google fights Microsoft on the low end devices bringing similar features to iPhone, but on worse looking hardware and no itunes integration. Seems like a clear separation of markets, but maybe its more complex then that.

[Rot'nApple]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

textbook publishers McGraw Hill and Oberlin Press have been working to put their content on iTunes in a DRMed format that would allow use for a period of time.

That's probably just so the biased history found in some McGraw Hill books and obscene poetry disguised as art in some Oberlin Press works can't be changed by outraged parents...

http://www.foxnews.com/topics/us/textbook-bias.htm

[spliff monkey]

Originally Posted by DaveGee

Sound to me like they are going to... what start rigging their books with a time limit and if you want it again you gotta re-purchase it?

Dave

It does sound like there going ahead with it. The only thing that might make it work is if the books are really cheap (compared to a book purchased and resold). It's still kind of a bad deal though especially for someone who specifically wanted to own a digital copy, because it makes for an easy reference without the bulk. I thought text books specifically were meant for reference.

Would this model also imply that you can't own a digital copy in any way? I'd rather rent a crappy novel for my vacation at the beach than a text book.

I kept all of my books from school, but is that just me? Because I think the popular assumption is "everyone" resells their books. We are talking about mass market after-all and most importantly capitalism and corporate America. Too bad it would really be an impaired use of the technology.

[KingKuei]

I sense some interesting parallels to the music industry in the early days of digital music before the iTunes store began selling DRM music. As I recall from a piece awhile back, Apple approached the music titans with the model of selling music on a per song and album basis as opposed to a rental model. But the captains of industry felt they knew better until their business models and multiple attempts at digital music failed to gain significant traction. In their desperation (fear of increasing piracy), they turned to a company (Apple) and a business (iTunes) that they didn't fully understand because nothing like it had existed. Apple and iTunes became a major success of course, but the record labels seem to have paid a great price for it. They've lost their leverage over Apple and without a viable competitor, the labels are slaves to a monster they created.

But I love Apple and I abhor greedy labels. I'm glad it happened.

If the sources in this article are accurate, then we may see something similar in the printed world. The publishers think they know their customers best and will attempt to create something that they think their customers want. And if it fails, they may turn to Apple who will appear like a savior; a savior who will basically feed them enough rope to hang themselves.

I think Apple's management is absolutely genius. Time and time again, they have ended up on the winning side of their deals. People love their iPhones and they love Apple for it, but they despise the carrier partner AT&T. Cisco Systems was happy to come to an agreement with Apple on the use of the "iPhone" trademark, a settlement which clearly benefitted Apple and had virtually no benefit of any kind to Cisco. And of course, the music labels that capitulated to Apple's iTunes model which in turn propelled sales of iPods and iPhones, but limited sales of full albums due to single song availability. Given what we've seen it's no wonder that the print publishers are reluctant to jump onboard Apple's bandwagon; it probably benefits Apple disproportionately.

Ultimately, it will be the consumers that ultimately dictate which model succeeds whether pay to own or subscription based. We vote with our wallets and only the business models that bring in the big bucks tend to survive. The others
just die. Good luck to all parties involved.

Posted from my iPhone

[voodooru]

Originally Posted by Rot'nApple

That's probably just so the biased history found in some McGraw Hill books and obscene poetry disguised as art in some Oberlin Press works can't be changed by outraged parents...

http://www.foxnews.com/topics/us/textbook-bias.htm

i used to work at Pearson Education publishing. The "editing" of history to appease our customers, especially our biggest one, the state of Texas was appalling! And our director just used to shrug and say, we have to SELL books!

nice to see our kids growing up with a distorted sense of history - if they're paying attention at all! LOL

[quinney]

Originally Posted by KingKuei

I sense some interesting parallels to the music industry in the early days of digital music before the iTunes store began selling DRM music.

Another parallel is that, like with musicians, writers could possibly bypass the middlemen and deal directly with Apple. When media are delivered digitally over the internet, what purpose do music labels and print publishers serve?

[tt92618]

Originally Posted by mstone

I wonder how much love the iPhone will have for Google Wave once it is released. I have been working with HTML5 code and found Safari is very problematic with anything drag and drop related which is one of the hallmarks of Wave and HTML5. Understandably the basic usage method of touch interfaces is If you hold and drag that is considered a scroll/pan not an object drag. I don't personally have Android so I'm not certain how Cupcake handles HTML5 drag and drop but Apple needs to address this in an upcoming release of iPhone OS or Google is going to eat their lunch.

Drag and drop in the web browser makes very little sense on a device with a screen that is only 320 x 480. This is great resolution for a phone, but there is very little you could do in that space which would be dramatically more efficient with drag and drop. There are certain uses, to be sure... but it isn't the show-stopper you imagine it to be I suspect.

[DaHarder]

So...

Apple's basically doing the exact same thing the HP/Compaq did with the COMPAQ TC1000 Tablet PC I bought back in 2003.

The same Windows-Based Tablet PC that came pre-loaded with ZINIO... The same ZINIO that has been providing me with all of my digital magazine subscriptions since 2003 -

How Innovative

[Ireland]

Originally Posted by DaHarder

So...

Apple's basically doing the exact same thing the HP/Compaq did with the COMPAQ TC1000 Tablet PC I bought back in 2003.

The same Windows-Based Tablet PC that came pre-loaded with ZINIO... The same ZINIO that has been providing me with all of my digital magazine subscriptions since 2003 -

How Innovative

I think it's more how it's going to be done, how easy it will be, how everything will be to read and sheer content selection on iTunes. No matter what you are into, it will be on iTunes. I happen to equate this move more to podcasts than anything else. iTunes made podcasts a contender, iTunes could make digital mags and papers a contender too. On the surface it looks to easy, and looks like it's be done before, but I don't think it's ever really being done right. And all the content that was needed wasn't there. What they need is a great system, simple and pretty and great software, a decent API to make a standard, and great hardware to read it on. Apple knows more than anything else here that a hardware standard will be just as important a software one, and a single store for everyone.

That said, personally I don't think this will be the most appealing aspect of the device for the vast majority of users. I think what will appeal to people is a cool piece of hardware with a decent sized screen, that is very versatile (meaning a lot of potential uses, a.k.a. board games etc.) and for the first time in history gives you a full touch interface on a personal computer that's enjoyable to use.

[brucep]

Originally Posted by Ireland

Apple will never make a phone.

nano phone








w/ fm radio

[techno]

Originally Posted by aaarrrgggh

When will they learn? First movie companies, then the music industry, now publishers try the same fools errand. Pay-per-use models don't work for things consumers are used to owning, even if they will only use them once.

DRM is bad in all forms, but time-sensitive restrictions make the jump to useless.

...as if it isn't bad enough locking it to a single device.

(Ironically, I won't buy my mom a kindle because she loves the library. She needs one, but it destroys a critical element of literature for her when you have to buy everything...)

I Totally agree! Many people like to keep their magazines for future reference. I imagine one of The nice things of having a newspaper in digital format would be to keep an archive for future reference too. What purpose would a time limit have? Why does a medium with continually changing content need to be a "rental"? I think they will treat books as they do with audio books and not put a time-sensitive restriction on them.

[jb510]

Im no fan of DRM, because the content crimes by it is never priced fairly. I won't pay the same full retail price I would in a store for something hobbled by it just because I chose to purchase it digitally. Further I don. Like seeing DRM versions being the only version available for sale. Finally I think all DRM'd content SHOULD have a time limit to avoid the enevitable shutting down of DRM autherozarion servers.

Sure I would rent an eBook, IF it was lessthan half the cost of buying it. The same is true of music, magazines, movies, whatever... Just don't try to charge me full price for something I'm not going to actually own. Oh, And give me the option to own it if I want to fork out full price for it.

[@homenow]

Originally Posted by voodooru

i used to work at Pearson Education publishing. The "editing" of history to appease our customers, especially our biggest one, the state of Texas was appalling! And our director just used to shrug and say, we have to SELL books!

nice to see our kids growing up with a distorted sense of history - if they're paying attention at all! LOL

I have worked on K-12 textbooks for all of the major publishers. The publishers write to the market with particular attention to the "political correctness" of the time. They rigidly keep gender and ethnic counts on photos and illustrations, and try to keep the text so that it does not offend the people making the decisions on purchasing the textbooks. There is also a lot of attention to the "fashion" and "branding" in the books. Jewelry and nail polish are removed in Photoshop, as are product labels to eliminate any controversy. If they didn't do these things or special interests groups and parents would complain louder than they already do.

[success]

Let me introduce you to King Jim.

http://www.kingjim.co.jp/pomera/

[Ireland]

Originally Posted by success

Let me introduce you to King Jim.

http://www.kingjim.co.jp/pomera/

Awful.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by desides

Of course Google loves the iPhone: Google is the default search and map source. Google is pretty much the gateway through which iPhone users access the Internet, all without Google having to lift a finger on their end. Apple does the work for them.

That sounds more like Google does the work for Apple's apps.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by success

Let me introduce you to King Jim.

http://www.kingjim.co.jp/pomera/

Kewel- is it matte and have firewire?

[DaveGee]

Originally Posted by spliff monkey

It does sound like there going ahead with it. The only thing that might make it work is if the books are really cheap (compared to a book purchased and resold). It's still kind of a bad deal though especially for someone who specifically wanted to own a digital copy, because it makes for an easy reference without the bulk. I thought text books specifically were meant for reference.

Would this model also imply that you can't own a digital copy in any way? I'd rather rent a crappy novel for my vacation at the beach than a text book.

I kept all of my books from school, but is that just me? Because I think the popular assumption is "everyone" resells their books. We are talking about mass market after-all and most importantly capitalism and corporate America. Too bad it would really be an impaired use of the technology.

Okay... after reading the comments from other readers I'm (for the moment) leaning in another direction now... What if things went something more like this.

First people who like to read buy books, hardcover if its a 'favorite author' or paperback for 'trash novels' and when money is tight. They love their collections and tend to go back and reread favorites over and over again.

There's one more thing they do with their books...

Q: What is done with books more than any other form of entertainment?
A: Lent to family, friends and co-workers.

DVD's might be a close 2nd place but people have been doing this with books since they were first made available to the great unwashed masses.

There are many negatives associated with ebooks... one of them is you can't loan them out like you would normal books sure it's you're and you can read it any time you like but you certainly aren't going LOAN your reader just so a coworker can borrow a book. Now that I think about it this is GENIUS! What *if* you had a ebook reader that could 'load' an 'ecopy' of any book you have in you're collection to anyone else who has... wait for it... THE SAME READER that you have... Things starting to click yet?

Now what are the benefits...

1 - To the publisher... A person can LOAN a time-restricted copy to a friend (using the same device) and unlike PRINTED books the borrower would be able to purchase the book right from their own reader (once it syncs with iBooks - Apples book service - lol).
2 - The the 'book lover' ebooks become *social* again they can be passed around just like the real thing.
3 - The hardware maker... everyone is going to want to use the same reader so they can participate in the ebook loaning feature.

What must be done to ensure the publisher doesn't get screwed by people sharing books back and forth forever.

1 - Time limit the loan to .. totally guessing .. 2 weeks after which time the person must purchase it from iBooks.
2 - Limit the number of times a single ebook is loaned to another specific hardware reader (3-5 times?)

What can be provided to the user as additional benefits of using ebooks?

1 - Loaning books (already stated) but perhaps the ability to loan the SAME single book to multiple people (5 or 6?) AT THE SAME TIME... After all they are time limited and in the end the more people the buyer loans ebooks to the more potential NEW buyers will turn up and now instead of people in the office having to pass the book from person to person to person before they all get a chance to enjoy it one person who owns the ebook could share it will all 5 people at the same time. Once the loan period you will re-obtain the ability to loan the book out again.

2 - The best part... if you loan out an ebook you are still entitled to enjoy the copy you purchased and don't ever have to bug people to return your damn book!

FINALLY... and I'm actually thinking of ton of other ways this could be of benefit... but the last one is this...

For every book that gets 'loaned' 'borrowed' between 2 or more people that translates to even LESS downloads FROM the iBooks service. People are using local bandwidth instead.

Yea... now this would be a really smart way to implement ebooks done 'the right way'.

Publisher: Free advertising from each and every books loaned.

Apple: People all driven to ONE device for their reading otherwise the loan feature isn't available.

Potential brilliant...

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by Ireland

Apple will never make a phone.

Maybe they meant full-fleged phone. But now since MMS arrived last Friday here in the US that's been proven false,

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

I'll stick to buying hardbound Textbooks. I know I own it and won't be dealing with a rental.

For those who want permanence, I would imagine there surely will be a print feature associated with such an e-textbook? Alternatively the price will be much lower?

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by DaveGee

Potential brilliant...

A very partial quote

Books and Magazines ... I agree it has massive potential. I would be tempted to rekindle my interest in DC comics if they were available on thre MacTablet. It's only been 40 year since I bought one

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by anantksundaram

For those who want permanence, I would imagine there surely will be a print feature associated with such an e-textbook? Alternatively the price will be much lower?

Are you serious? The point of hardbound printing is self-evident.

You expect me to lease a $150 Engineering Book and then pay to print it out without that quality binding?

Get real.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by Rot'nApple

That's probably just so the biased history found in some McGraw Hill books and obscene poetry disguised as art in some Oberlin Press works can't be changed by outraged parents...

http://www.foxnews.com/topics/us/textbook-bias.htm

Define Obscene Poetry.

More to the point, what the hell do I give a rat's behind what FOX has to say about Facts? Marriage like many man made institutions is mutable.

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

Are you serious? The point of hardbound printing is self-evident.

You expect me to lease a $150 Engineering Book and then pay to print it out without that quality binding?

Get real.

You should learn to read the whole post before commenting. I also said, "....the price will be much lower."

It is unreal of you to assume that the textbook will continue to be sold for $150 in this medium. Apple's pricing model here may well parallel that in their music sales - e.g., some smaller price on a per chapter basis (a la ¢99 per tune for $14.99 CD), and some compromise on binding, lack of color if you use a b/w printer (a la the lossy nature of the AACs or the MP3s).

As with all such media recently, it will be a tussle between convenience and quality. And, just as CDs and DVDs continue to be produced, so will your 'quality-bound' books.

[@homenow]

Originally Posted by anantksundaram

... It is unreal of you to assume that the textbook will continue to be sold for $150 in this medium...

I have worked in textbook publishing for over a decade. Recently I was on a forum on Linkedin where someone stated that the cost of printing (which is increasingly being done in China and Mexico) textbooks today accounts for about 33% of the price of the book, the rest of the cost is in the development. That brings your $150 price down to about $99. Now, as you move it into an electronic media you have additional government regulations which add cost to the development to comply with section 508 accessibility rules. Computer technology has improved since I last was involved with research on this but it will add at least 10% to the cost of the development. Add in to that hyperlinking within the document and other interactive features that will be expected and you probably have an additional 10% (conservatively) to the cost of production. Now you are back up to about $120 or more for the book. If you have a more interactive book with video and "flash" put in then you could easily be back up to the original $150 price tag for the textbook.

Edit: Just an observation from the last decade, a lot of the printing expense has been eliminated already through technological developments like computer to plate and sending printing to other countries. One book that I worked on around 2000 the publisher spent about $60,000 on film, and close to an additional $20,000 on proofs. Most of that has been removed from the production costs already. This particular book sold for about $75 then and sells for the same now even given close to 10 years of inflation.

[Mister Snitch]

"The publishers are intent on remaining masters of their own destiny"

Since they got NOTHIN', what they really want is to remain master-baters. All Apple needs to do is cut deals on their terms with whatever publishers are willing to do so - including online publishers (of which there are zillions). Once they, with the boost they get from Apple, start eating Time, Inc's lunch - BIG TIME - watch these asswipes come crawling to Apple, begging to be let into the game.

Chances of these Ballmeresque clowns actually making Apple bend to their "might" - ZERO. Pathetic.