Friday, May 2, 2003

iTunes Music Store and Micropayments Jonathon Rentzsch talks a bit about credit cards and the iTunes Music Store and breaks out a very likely scenario about how Apple can manage to charge $.99 to a credit card successfully. The key to this is understanding that there are two phases to a credit card transaction: authorization and capture. Basically, they're banking on you to buy more than one song. Bill Bumgarner lays out a case that Apple may have partnered up with the credit card companies to try out a micropayment system that is different than the traditional model of credit card transactions. He also makes a point that is valid from both the payment side as well as the music business side: "The launch of the Apple Music Store has the unique characteristics of making a really huge amount of media noise while being accessible only to a niche market [Macintosh owners with a US billing address]. At least initially. This provides an excellent opportunity for the companies involved to gauge the public's reaction without actually having to commit to a stupendously large potential market." Me. I think that both Bill and Jonathon may be right. I just watched a few of my purchases from yesterday come in batched together on an invoice. And, the credit card companies would be foolish not to explore the micro/minipayment space with Apple on this one. It's a controlled enough market to be manageable, yet a big enough one to be meaningful. Like I said, there's more to this endeavour than just selling songs at 99 cents a pop. [James Duncan Davidson] This seems like an easy gamble for Apple. Don't bill until you hit a reasonable threshold. Most people can't stop at just one or two songs... just ask my bro :-) 3:01:08 PM

Big News in the Blogosphere MoveableType: Six Log: Six Apart Milestones Moveable Type: Six Apart: Six Apart Ltd. Announces Close of Series "A" Financing Guardian: Bloggers Tool Up Moveable Type: Six Apart: Six Apart Ltd. Names Anil Dash as Vice President of Business Development Blogger: Dano FAQ OK, so this is not exactly about online advertising but since it's about blogging and MarfetingFix is a blog, we kinda follow this stuff. It's new blog software week. Here's the deal. Ben and Mena Trott of MoveableType, the publishing platform that makes MarketingFix possible, have just announced a new product called TypePad. They have also named Anil Dash , a guru status blogger and until recently chief developer over at VillageVoice.com, to be VP of Biz Dev. Further, they have closed an initial round of funding. [marketingfix] Wow, Six Apart gets funding for their weblog-related business. What's important to note is that they're already generating revenue, so the investment is about growing their business, not just starting it. 2:57:08 PM

Neward on Persistence. Great stuff on Ted Neward's weblog today on object first, relational first, procedural first, and hierarchical first approaches to persistence - all from his upcoming book Effective Enterprise Java. I'm printing them out now and cancelling all appointments this morning ;-) [Blogging Roller] 2:45:49 PM

Re: Apple's music store: one step in the right direction, five steps back Apple has built a great music store, but it's not enough to get me to switch. For the cost of a "CD" from Apple's music store, I can by a real CD from Amazon. Apple's CD has DRM built in.... [MediaSavvy] Well, you can't expect everyone to embrace the future. There are still people who won't use ATM machines, either. But most people recognize the value in convenience. I personally won't buy another CD again because all I do now is rip them to iTunes and store them away. Easier for me to just back up my iTunes collections to an external HD. 11:13:31 AM

Google Readying for IPO? Fortune: Google Finds a Good Analyst One of Silicon Valley's favorite parlor games is guessing when Google will go public. Though CEO Eric Schmidt says an IPO isn't imminent (see Tech: Where the Action Is), here's a sign that Google is at least thinking of testing the public waters: It has hired respected former CSFB analyst Lise Buyer, 43, to be what she calls "official lug-nut checker." (Buyer left CSFB in 2000 and has not been implicated in any of the charges against former boss Frank Quattrone.) I think that they will go public soon so that they can throw more money at developing their advertising offering, specifically expanding Adwords internationally. My money is on October this year. [marketingfix] My money is on next year. :-) 10:58:33 AM

Success in Iraq? Join the E.U.! I have a crazy idea for measuring success in Iraq: nominate the country for inclusion in the E.U. Countries that want to get into the E.U. must elevate their politics and economics to a certain level before being considered. It's a win for Iraq, since it gives them a clear goal and a potential reward of healthy participation in the free world. And it's a win for the E.U., since they can show that their form of governance is exportable. ...OK, I'm sure there is much more to it than that, but it's an idea... 9:40:11 AM

Help! I've fallen and I can't get up! If you're a regular reader, you may have noticed my week long absence. We took a long weekend to Capitola, to escape the unpacked boxes, the buggy beta code, and the unresearched legal issues. It was good to get away and clear our heads a bit, although vacation with small children isn't quite the same. They still need their routine, otherwise they'd become unmanageable. Jackson held up well, and seemed to really enjoy being with us more. He seemed sad when we packed up to come home. Ah well, we're back now, and things are looking more calm for the immediate future. We've got another trip next month, the annual Yosemite migration, but it looks as though we have to pass on the annual Clear Lake trip in anticipation of my Bro's wedding in Maui. That should be a blast! ...And now back to our regularly scheduled program... 9:35:56 AM