Rant alert: The world is bigger than the US alone
I was just reading the live blogs coming from the Amazon press conference and felt kind of disappointed… again… I was hoping that Amazon would announce the European launch of the Kindle. But sadly… no.
I’m pretty sure it is yet another copyright issue that is preventing Amazon from launching Kindle worldwide. And that is exactly something that needs to change. With the Internet being this widespread and content accessible worldwide, old school copyrights and release tactics just don’t work any more. And in my opinion, they also make no sense at all.
Sadly… It’s not just Amazon. Apple’s iTunes is another good example. iTunes TV shows and movies are still only available in 1 or 2 countries in Europe. Or what about other online video providers like Netflix and Hulu? Even though it is perfectly possible to access these sites outside the US, copyright laws prevent you from using their service. Why is that?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to release books, movies, music, games, … on the same day worldwide? Combine available marketing power into one global campaign? Could that also have a positive effect on piracy? If I can go and see/buy a movie on the same day as someone across the ocean can, surely there is no need to download it? I would have no problem paying to see a movie or a new episode of a TV show.
Sadly, this is not even just restricted to copyright laws. Remember the launch of the iPhone? It was available only in the US for months. What did people outside the US do? They bought one in the US and hacked it. There are plenty of other examples like this one out there…
I know this blog post is not going to change anything but at least I got it out of my system ;-) Would love to hear your thoughts though!
UPDATE: As Mike Chambers pointed out, in some cases this is a knife that cuts both ways. People in the US also can’t watch content from Europe.
- End of rant -
Build applications for a potential of 1 billion users!
From Wikipedia:
As of June 2008, the number of personal computers in use worldwide hit one billion, while another billion is expected to be reached by 2014. Mature markets like the United States, Western Europe and Japan accounted for 58 percent of the worldwide installed PCs. The emerging markets were expected to double their installed PCs by 2013 and to take 70 percent of the second billion PCs.
As I’m sure you know, PCs are everywhere these days and the market is still growing rapidly. I’m also sure you know that Adobe AIR can run on most of these as well (provided they run Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2 and SP3, Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows 2000 SP4, Windows 2003 Server, Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher or Linux). That means that, building an application that runs on Adobe AIR has a potential user base of 1 billion users that is growing rapidly every quarter!
“That’s cool, Serge. But how do I make money from building AIR apps? Where’s the AIR app store like Apple’s app store for the iPhone?”
I think Apple has done a tremendous job at making buying and installing applications completely foolproof. But the real question is: “Do you really need an app store for AIR applications?”. There are lots of ways to monetize your application. And there are already lots of good examples of people making money with AIR applications.
For example: EarthBrowser, Agile Agenda, Broadchoice, Tanager Audioworks and Balsamiq all sell licenses per user. No developer programs to sign up to and no middle man (with the exception of the payment provider). Easy to set up and you have total control.
Selling software licenses is just one way of monetizing your AIR application. Robert Christensen, one of the AIR product managers, did a session on this topic at MAX in Milan. If you want more information on how to monetize your application, I would suggest you check out Rob’s blog post on this. Rob has a few real world cases that will definitely inspire you. You really don’t need an app store and thus you don’t have to wait to make money with your work!
Now the only things left to do, is start building your AIR applications, make money with them and send me a percentage of what you make with them ;-).
HD video now available to over 80% of internet connected PCs
Just a couple of days ago, Flash Player senior product manager Justin Everett-Church announced the updated Flash Player penetration stats. This update shows that now 81.7% (in mature markets) of internet connected PCs now have Flash Player 9.0.115. The release of that version of the Flash Player brought the Flash Player cache for Flex framework caching, hardware-scaled full screen, multi-core rendering, and H.264/AAC HD video.
If you didn’t know this, the Flash Player can easily play back a 1080p high-definition video. And the cool thing about this is, that this HD video is really a part of your Flash app like any other movieclip or asset meaning you can also do things like masking, rotating and animating it. If you wanted, you could even use it on a 3D plane with Papervision!
To be fair, Europe is a little behind on this particular version. But 78.6% is still a lot better than any other HD capable players out there!
Feel free to follow me on: 
