tuesdayDeveloper;

So Apple released a new subscription model. It says that all in-app purchases will be subject to a 30-70 split in profits, much like the music and App Store currently emulate. Further, all purchases that can be made outside of an iOS app, must also be available for purchase inside the app and no link can be provided within the app to outside stores. And they can’t be priced lower outside of the iOS app either. This seems to be bad news for Amazon.com because they just so happen to put a 30% profit margin on their books, I’m sure that other eBook retailers with iOS apps are also thinking for ideas.

There’s quite bit of controversy over this policy; I’ve even seen people that decided to sell their iPad because of it. I’m a of Apple, but this last move seems like too much. 30% is a huge chunk. Not allowing publishers to opt for different prices outside of the iOS app or to provide a exterior link inside the app seems to be anti-competitive to me. But I’m not a lawyer and (by the laws of the land) that means I don’t know what is right or wrong (go figure).

What would I do if I were Amazon? Well, they have a few questions to ask themselves. Their main questions will revolve around how much profit they make from the iPod/iPad and how much revenue they would lose as soon as they stopped providing an iOS app. If the answer is, “not much” then I’d say it’s safe to say that the iPod app is safe. If the answer is more than is comfortable then we’d see Amazon do one of a few different things.

• Amazon could stop providing an app in the App Store.
• Amazon could just not worry about it.
• Amazon could raise the price of eBooks to mitigate the cost.
• Amazon could make it possible, but very difficult to buy books inside the Kindle App.
• Amazon could hire a hypnotist who has some kind of access to Steve Jobs and “persuade” him to revise this policy.

You see, when Amazon is making their decisions, they have to think about people like me. I’d be a library book person myself, but the unfortunate thing about that is that my local library is very small and the very interesting books I’ve been reading (Sources of Power and This Year I Will both very interesting) as well as the books I plan to read in the near future are almost never available there, so I get kindle books from Amazon. They are around $10 each, and I like the fact that I’ll have them forever, so it’s not that bad of a deal (though someone really needs to develop an eBook library). The only problem is that I don’t particularly like reading them on my computer, I’m glad I have an iPod Touch for that. I’m not interested in buying a one-use-only gadget. If I couldn’t read Kindle books on my iPod, I wouldn’t buy them at all.

The only problem is, if I can’t read them on my iPod, I won’t buy them. But even if I did buy them inside of the iPod App, Amazon wouldn’t make any money. Personally I’d probably opt to buy them online anyway, my wife and I get free Amazon gift cards so I wouldn’t want my iTunes credit card used, but most people wouldn’t care how they are paying for the book, so that means that isn’t an option really.

Maybe Amazon will choose to raise the price of their Kindle Books 10-15%. This would still give them a somewhat smaller profit when the book is purchased within the Kindle App, and they would receive more than 30% profit when purchased elsewhere. Of course, they run the risk that people may stop buying the more expensive eBooks, but if they find the right percentage perhaps they won’t lose anything on their revenue.

But they could decide that Apple’s idea of fair, isn’t fair, and leave the App Store until Apple decided it would be more “reasonable”. It could well mean that Amazon chooses to call Apple’s bluf and leave the iOS App Store altogether, retreating to the haven of their own Kindle, until Apple comes crawling back. Whether that would happen I don’t know, but there could be unintended consequences for Apple (lower sales, lower profit). Again, that wouldn’t be all good of Amazon either. Like I said, I have no interest in a Kindle and I’m sure there are others who feel the same.

I don’t know what Amazon will do. I suspect they’ll raise prices, probably 10-15%, or leave the iOS App Store entirely. I can say that I hope Apple and Amazon work this out.

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A ZDNet writer, Christopher Dawson, believes that Flash will continue to rise and that Apple will eventually begin to support Flash. Maybe, but I’m doubtful.

As I’ve repeated probably a hundred times, tablet computers are the future. Most people don’t need anything more than a simple and inexpensive device to check email, browse the web, maybe play a few games. That fact aside I think that tablets will become more and more popular and we’ll start seeing people with more diverse needs, needs that future tablets will be capable of doing. So we’ll continue to see the rise of tablet computers. The question becomes, who will be supplying those tablets. I admit that Android based phones are becoming increasingly popular, but my guess is that tablets will be even more popular than they are.

It seems that everyone either is selling a tablet or will be coming out with one soon, but really the market belongs to Apple at the moment. It’s obviously a challenge for new tablet makers to compete with Apple, we haven’t seen any option that is as inexpensive as the iPad, though some have competitive prices if you count subsidies (which are paid for in subscription costs later by the user). If any company wants to compete with Apple, they have to live with the price range that is defined, without subsidies, just like Apple did, which may mean they leave out a few features.

But as Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, another ZDNet writer pointed out, this is a difficult thing to do. Apple’s prices are just too low for other flash banner waiving competitors to compete. Their only hope is to simplify the hardware and make their devices cheaper—which doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. By the time that tablet competitors realize what they need to do Apple will have an even greater lead than they have now, meaning that Apple wins. Apple doesn’t have to support flash because they will be the industry standard that everyone is developing for.

In other words:
Flash-allowing tablet systems are too expensive.
Apple will continue to sell better than other competitors because they have the right prices.
Apple will continue their lead and remaing the industry standard.
The industry standard still won’t support Flash.
Developers will develop with HTML5 and other non-Flash tools to reach a larger audience.
Flash will die because it isn’t supported.

Now I could be wrong, if tablet suppliers want to, they can build a more competitively priced product that blows Apple out of the water, but now, do you really think that’s going to happen?

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There’s no shortage of speculation about the iPad 2. Wishlists and predictions abound—but I’m going to add my own as well. In addition to telling you what I’d like and what I think is likely, I’ll give you my take on what other people think is likely.

Release Date
Februaryish
Apple has had the iPad 1 out long enough to justify an upgrade, but they aren’t going to release it right after Christmas, they’ll wait a couple months.

New Specs
Probably higher resolution:
I’m not sure if the resolution of iPad 2 will match the iPhone 4, that would be ideal, but that would also be quite a feat (though Apple is prone to exceed expectations).

Front and rear-facing cameras
I’m not the only one who is sure that iPad 2 will have a couple cameras, it’s practically a given.

Thinner
While I couldn’t care less if  version 2 is thinner than version 1 (I think it’s already pretty good) I’m pretty sure it will be at least a third slimmer than its predecessor.

Processing Speed
There’s some speculation that iPad 2 will have better processing power; if so, I doubt it will be significant. One of the key characteristics of the iPad is that its battery lasts a long time. Faster processing power will retard the battery life and so I don’t think that significant increase in processor or ram specs is likely. While adding processing power will increase the functionality of the device, that defeats the purpose of the iPad. The iPad is for basic operations: surfing the web, checking your email, reading and editing a short document. The iPad isn’t for major things (they’re not trucks) image editing, lots of writing, and programming weren’t the intended purpose of the tablet device although I think that could be a use of future tablets, just not the iPad, at least not any time soon.

Screen Size
I don’t think that Jobs will allow a smaller iPad to be made, even though there may be some market for it. I hope I’m wrong when I think that Apple isn’t going to increase the size of their iPad screen, though it would be really nice.

Battery Life
I wouldn’t put it past Apple to improve the life of the battery even if it is thinner, they just do stuff like that.

Online Storage Backup
Also not likely, though someone should do it.

Apple iDonate to Mahon Program
Also not likely.

What do you think will make it to the next iPad? What do you hope is in the next iPad?

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A few years ago I came up with a new and revolutionary idea. The idea wasn’t completely original, but I think that if I had had the resources (aka the knowhow and/or money) this idea could have blossomed into a very successful project. In fact, I’ve lived to see my project come to a partial fruition: The Mac App Store.

There were a few differences, however.

Slick Install would have been a cross platform collection of open and closed source software that could be used to search and compare software on your computers. On a PC the search terms “Word processor” or “Writing software” would have resulted in Word, Word Perfect, and OpenOffice, on a Mac the results would be Word (for Mac), OpenOffice, and Pages. People using the software would be able to compare price, features, etc. When they were ready to buy, they would simply click and it would be installed.

Slick Istall would have stored your library of software and in the event that your harddrive crashed, you could get back all of your software by simply loggin in and restoring. If you had multiple PCs, you could use your library to remember what software choices you had made in the past, you would need to pay the price of a second licence and then simple click and it will do all the work for you.

Slick Install would have provided the software at a discount (with the permission of the software vendors) but the application itself would have been free for any user. It would have made money by taking a portion of software sales.

If you don’t believe me, ask my brother, he is the only person in the world I have told until now.

I wish that I’d had the ability to provide this service a few years ago when I first thought of it.

What were your great ideas that you’ve seen developed without you? What ideas do you wish you could do right now? Tell me about them in the comments below.

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Perhaps I’m unusual, but I can’t be the only one who wants a bigger tablet than the iPad. The Galaxy Tab from Samsung is coming out and it’s smaller than the iPad. This seems to be a trend. All of the iPad “Contenders” have been smaller, many significantly smaller, and I’m sick of it—I want a bigger screen!

Now, I realize that Android has a long ways to go before it is really as fun and easy to use as the iPad (two things that guarantee success), but they can at least make it easier with a larger screen. Rumors say that Apple too is coming out with a smaller iPad. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think they’ve already got one I guess people want something in between, but why?

To me, the iPad has been such a success because it is more pleasant to use than an iPod Touch or iPhone, more or less because it’s bigger. It’s easier to read and interact with the content because there’s more space to tap, pinch, see, etc. (While I’m on my soap box, how many multitouch fingers can you even fit on a screen the size of the new iPod nano?)

My message to all tablet developers out there, make ‘em bigger! I’d like to see a 13 in tablet soon. Eventually I’d like to have a very large touch-screen desk computer, but in the mean time I’d like to see Android tablet developers get their act together and build something that is really comprable to the iPad.

Here’s your chance to tell me I’m crazy. Do you like the smaller-is-better trend?

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