Why on earth do you think Google wants to start picking dark fiber and implementing free wifi throughout major cities. It's not because they're not evil, it's because the internet providers of today are going to be the phone providers of tomorrow.
I wrote a couple of posts about it on my site back when Google introduced Gtalk:
http://www.yesterdaywasdramatic.com/articles/2005/ 08/29/more-crazy-thoughts-on-google
Basically, I think google is going to offer some form of advertising(location based?) in order to offer free phone service. I think pay phone carriers will still exist for those who don't want adverts tied to their phone calls.
I've never used ebay, but I think unless they utilize Skype with a heavily user centered design focus, Google stands a good chance to step into this arena and win it over. I'm pretty sure the reason Gtalk is so basic is that Google didn't want to confuse end users with it's primary focus(simple voice and text chat).
My money's on Google to win this one.
Gmail clone, I'm not interested. IMO, while Google is still struggling a bit to follow the success of Gmail in other areas(Chat, RSS, etc), there still has not been single web application that has had a more positive effect on my internet activity than Gmail. Gmail was a revelation, and all that I've seen from Yahoo, MS, Zimbra, etc leaves me wanting. It's as if they can't think of a better user experience, and thus their innovation is to bring traditional desktop apps to the web. Boring. And NOT innovative, and possibly not the best solution.
I would kill to have an open source version of Gmail. I can use it for my personal/freelance work, and map it to a domain, but my work won't allow me to use it for business due to privacy/security reasons. It's a shame, really.
"To have only one price point is not fair to our artists, and I dare say not appropriate to consumers. The market should decide, not a single retailer..."
I totally agree with this statement.
"Some songs should be $0.99 and some songs should be more. I don't want to give anyone the impression that $0.99 is a thing of the past."
Notice that there's no mention that some songs should be cheaper, he obviously just wants to raise prices out of greed.
I couldn't care less what happens, I think I can count on 1 hand the number of songs I've bought through iTunes(not an experience I'm likely to go through again unless I get a 10,000+ a year raise, even then, I could probably find better things to spend my money on rather than overpriced digital music. Because of the large amount, and wide variety of music I listen to, I prefer the online rental model.
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Why on earth do you think Google wants to start picking dark fiber and implementing free wifi throughout major cities. It's not because they're not evil, it's because the internet providers of today are going to be the phone providers of tomorrow. I wrote a couple of posts about it on my site back when Google introduced Gtalk: http://www.yesterdaywasdramatic.com/articles/2005/ 08/29/more-crazy-thoughts-on-google
Basically, I think google is going to offer some form of advertising(location based?) in order to offer free phone service. I think pay phone carriers will still exist for those who don't want adverts tied to their phone calls.
I've never used ebay, but I think unless they utilize Skype with a heavily user centered design focus, Google stands a good chance to step into this arena and win it over. I'm pretty sure the reason Gtalk is so basic is that Google didn't want to confuse end users with it's primary focus(simple voice and text chat).
My money's on Google to win this one.
Gmail clone, I'm not interested. IMO, while Google is still struggling a bit to follow the success of Gmail in other areas(Chat, RSS, etc), there still has not been single web application that has had a more positive effect on my internet activity than Gmail. Gmail was a revelation, and all that I've seen from Yahoo, MS, Zimbra, etc leaves me wanting. It's as if they can't think of a better user experience, and thus their innovation is to bring traditional desktop apps to the web. Boring. And NOT innovative, and possibly not the best solution. I would kill to have an open source version of Gmail. I can use it for my personal/freelance work, and map it to a domain, but my work won't allow me to use it for business due to privacy/security reasons. It's a shame, really.
"To have only one price point is not fair to our artists, and I dare say not appropriate to consumers. The market should decide, not a single retailer ..."
I totally agree with this statement.
"Some songs should be $0.99 and some songs should be more. I don't want to give anyone the impression that $0.99 is a thing of the past."
Notice that there's no mention that some songs should be cheaper, he obviously just wants to raise prices out of greed.
I couldn't care less what happens, I think I can count on 1 hand the number of songs I've bought through iTunes(not an experience I'm likely to go through again unless I get a 10,000+ a year raise, even then, I could probably find better things to spend my money on rather than overpriced digital music. Because of the large amount, and wide variety of music I listen to, I prefer the online rental model.