iPad and Android Tablet and iPad apps: five monetization strategies

Subscription workarounds

In-app single purchases

Advertising

Location-based offerings

Social media sharing and aggregation

via emediavitals.com

Click throught for a nice summary post from Prescott Shible’s blog on current digital magazine monetization options.

I fully agree with the fact that the biggest current challenge is offering robust subscription models for tablet magazines, but also think that with upcoming solutions from Adobe and other major tool providers, the negative aspects of in app purchases will soon be addressed, in terms of being able to provide tracking intelligence of in app user activities and behaviors.

GenY – Is Content Still King?

According to an attitudinal research study completed by Resonate Research, 18-34 year olds purchasing behaviors are influenced by both the products value, the aspirational aspect of a product’s brand message, and also by it’s “cool” factor.

From the press release: This group is more passionate about social issues like energy (36% more than the 35 plus online population), climate change (48% more) and animal rights (24% more). However, in general they are 15% – 25% less likely to make purchase decisions based on their issues of importance. Instead they look to products for external validation, meaning they buy products that convey and reward their success and personal achievement. When compared to the 35 plus online population, 18 – 34 year olds are more likely to purchase based on the following brand attributes: innovation, looks, popularity and prestige. In fact, they are five times more likely than their elders to purchase a product that is viewed as prestigious, and over twice as likely to buy a popular product or a product that is aesthetically appealing.

Business usage and applications for iPad are on the rise.

Lloyd’s underwriters are testing the iPad’s usefulness in the insurance market. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

For centuries, insurance brokers could be seen in the City clutching bundles of papers in leather slipcases. But the underwriting slip, detailing a risk to be placed on the Lloyd’s of London market, could soon be a thing of the past.

Lloyd’s of London has begun a pilot scheme to replace underwriting slips with iPads, Apple‘s tablet computer (right), which has become a runaway success since its launch this year.

via guardian.co.uk

B2B applications and opportunties for the iPad are increasing, the latest being Lloyds of London. If a staunchy insurance agent can mobilize their workforce with a tablet device, to me the is a surefire message in there that more widespread acceptance of tablet devices in the businessnmarket is imminent.

While it seems that such mobile opportunities should have existed for the iPhone already, the form factor difference is a clear factor here.

And also revealing is the fact that such specialized and niche apps are developed in low quantities in he B2B world, where volume based revenue from app store sales are not a factor.

Digital Magazines and Books need to Evolve!

This was a week for some great ideas to emerge on how tablet platforms and digital readers need to evolve in terms of functionality, features, user experience, social media integration.

Now that the iPad has been on the market for some time and a slew of other tablets are about to drop, usage and behavior patterns are starting to emerge, and ideas on extending tablet functionality are becoming more concrete.

Here at Polymash we have been humbly completing work on extending tablet magazine reader functionality for the information product and educational market, adding plug-in features such as in magazine notepads and social media integration for Apple and Android platforms.

But for a more comprehensive and compelling glimpse at future possibilities, I’d invite you to check out this video from IDEO entitled The Future of the Book

My favorite concepts here:

• The idea that interactivity needs to extend to participatory and community based discussions about the material being read. (Ideo calls this “Nelson”)
• The idea to link to book clubs, reading lists and recommendation engines (Copeland)
• Ideo also proposes a concept (Alice), which allows for co-creating the story, affecting the plot, interacting with characters and so on, and while I love the idea I do see it more in the realm off app and game development.

However long term the creation of truly interactive content will blur the line between app development and content creation…

Frankfurt Book Fair

Also this week the Frankfurt Book Fair took place, and following twitter feeds and blog entries it was apparent that there was much tablet talk and discussion. I’d like to share Joe Wikert’s presentation he gave “My eContent Wish List–Frankfurt TOC 2010” as posted on slideshare, which mirrors some of VIMEO’s vision in a perhaps more pragmatic way:

Having worked with, and around, the limitations of today’s tablet reader technology, the critical element to me is to create platform independent APIs that allow developers to directly access and interface to the publications content

My favorites:

• Platform independent readers, with platform independent APIs
• Better Social Media integration, for example tweeting from within and article or story
• The ability to highlight and annotate content, and then be able to share, archive, collect and search these annotations across publications

There are some great ideas in these presentations, and I hope publishing houses and tool makers in the tablet industry are listening and adjusting to the market needs being formulated.

Inspired to NOT take any VC money?

“Our outfit Envato was started by myself, my big brother, my wife and my best friend,” says Collis Ta’eed (pictured below on the cover of Nett magazine). “We put in a bit of money we each had and mostly just worked hard.” In this Q&A, Ta’eed answers questions about Envato and its path to success.

via 37signals.com

My wife and I saw “The Social Network” this week, and interesting conversations followed around holding a vision for your start up company, and the role of venture capital in building a business. For some inspiration and a story on becoming successful without VC funding, read this 37 Signals post

Key Points from a Harrison Group Survey on Tablet Technologies and Digital Publishing

Unlike other new technologies, this revolution is not about the technology itself, but rather, about the role that content plays in people’s lives

via prnewswire.com

The above is my favorite quote from the Harrison Survey on the impact that the iPad and other tablet devices are having on the digital publishing and technology landscape in general. I also thought it interesting that the “early adopter” persona / stigma is in fact changing:

“Early adopters of eReading are more likely to see themselves as fashionable, playful, family-focused and kind, as opposed to the technology and leadership orientation of early adopters in prior technological revolutions”

Other Key Points:

• Tablet users spend 50% more time reading magazines, 75% more time reading newspapers, and 25% more time reading books.
• Accelerated estimates of 20 million tablets sold in 2011, with 13% of all consumers expressing interest in purchasing a tablet in the next 12 months.
• Inevitability of tablets as the delivery mechanism for digital magazines
• Comfort with digital payment systems that debit accounts
• Multi function tablet devices instead of single purpose e-readers
• Continued privacy concerns and acknowledgment of the importance solutions in that space

Content still king, children’s publishers told

A major gathering of children’s publishers has been urged to stay focused on content despite the increasing familiarity children have with new technological advances. 

via thebookseller.com

I totally agree with the view that in order to take print content to a digital platform, the wiz bang effects need to add value and enjoyment on the part of the reader, namely children interacting with books on a digital platform. I think the winners in this arena will add interactivity, animation and content in a way that results in a high quality experience.

But if you agree with the concept that “content is still king” , then I think content+interactivity is “master of the universe”

There are other lessons and thoughts for folks looking to publish or re-publish children’s books in this bookseller.com post by Graeme Neill, and an interesting thought from Matt Locke I do not quite agree with, namely that “Facebook may not mean anything in another five years”… Having just seen “the Social Network” I believe Facebook will manage and adjust to stay relevant.

AUTO BILD für iPad !

 

via itunes.apple.com

Is it just me, or does it seem that European magazines are way more active in developing iPad and tablet digital publications?

Recently there have been a slew of digital magazines released in Europe, and Axel Springer Verlag is just the latest examples of this. It would also appear to me that the pricing and subscription models are more consumer friendly in the EU compared to the US, where publishers seem determined to set an example and train tablet users to expect high pricing models for Magazine Content.

So which is the better strategy? Attracting loyal readership with low pricing and making money through sales volume is one way, or hold out for higher pricing and risk fewer readers of the digital editions?

While I think the production costs for digital content may seem high to publishers initially, I feel the exponential growth of the tablet market on multiple platforms is being ignored in the US approach. Production costs may be high, but ultimately the distribution costs are not when scaling to potentially millions of readers. To me the scalability of the digital platforms are the real differentiation to print, where each additional copy costs extra ink, paper, packaging, transportation, distribution, warehousing, inventory and waste copies.

So I guess personally I come down on the side of lower pricing and future volume, even if this initially means subsidizing the effort slightly. Plus, establishing and automating digital publishing work flows is an experience best had in the beginning of the upcoming rush to tablet publishing.

What do you think?

Next Issue Media Announces Key Additions to Senior Executive Team — NEW YORK, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ –

Next Issue Media, the digital publishing venture of Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time, Inc., announced the addition of four new members to its executive management team.  The company also announced the opening of its new technology development offices in the Silicon Valley

via prnewswire.com

Digital publishing services are expanding rapidly, with IT innovation centers springing up in Silicon Valley. The latest is Conde Nast’s Next Issue Media, who are opening offices in Palo Alto and are staffing up.

New eMagStudio software eases publishing on iPhone and iPad

Software vendor eMagCreator has chosen to focus on iPhone/iPad publishing and have already released a new mobile version of their online publishing platform eMagStudio, which is one of the first desktop software’s which publishes directly to Apples iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, using the newly developed HTML 5 based reader. The new release is the first of many initiatives towards publishing on Apples mobile devices.

via prurgent.com

I would anticipate that there will soon be several tools to publish to tablet devices that incorporate HTML5 based capabilities.

My question is how important a “native” tablet experience is to readers, compared PFD conversion solutions. Certainly the feature list for eMagStudio is impressive…