Thoughts of Peace

Wislawa Szymborska, a Polish poet, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. She was born in 1923.

The End and the Beginning
by Wislawa Szymborska

After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won't
straighten themselves up, after all.
Someone has to push the rubble
to the sides of the road,
so the corpse-laden wagons can pass.

Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa-springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.

Someone must drag in a girder
to prop up a wall.
Someone must glaze a window,
rehang a door.

Photogenic it's not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.

Again we'll need bridges
and new railway stations.

Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.
Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls how it was.
Someone listens
and nods with unsevered head.
Yet others milling about
already find it dull.

From behind the bush
sometimes someone still unearths
rust-eaten arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.

Those who knew
what was going on here
must give way to
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.

In the grass which has overgrown
causes and effects,
someone must be stretched out,
blade of grass in his mouth,
gazing at the clouds.

Razors, Blades, Tunes and Ink

Forrester Research issued a report about iTunes sales last week that was widely misinterpreted. Many reported that iTunes sales had collapsed in 2006. This notion came from a superficial reading of the report by a few, and then the piling-on effect of online reporters who only read derivative reporting. This furor of misinformation even coincided with a 3% drop in the price of Apple stock. Lemmings abound, it seems.

In 1903, Gillette adopted the strategy of "giving away the razors and selling the blades." In the 21st century this strategy was adopted by HP, selling printers for low margins, toner and ink cartridges for high margins. Other printer manufacturers have followed suit. Apple has turned this around. The iPod/iTunes strategy is to make money selling the razors (iPods) and to hook customer in with cheap blades (iTunes songs). What Forrester actually found was that the number of iTunes songs purchased by iPod owners had risen only slightly during 2006, from 20 to 23. At the same time, sales at the iTunes store have plateaued at about $1 billion annually, only a portion of which goes to the music providers. This is not a problem for Apple, whose iPod sales and profits continue to climb. It is a disaster for the music industry, for whom CD sales are collapsing to the tune of billions of dollars annually.

This is why Microsoft and Universal Music Group recently announced an agreement under which Microsoft will pay Universal $1 for every Zune music player sold (see Zune And Universal Make Friends). The content folks have to make money somehow.

As the iPod/Zune Google/YouTube world is showing us, in the digital age content may be king, but the money is made by those who deliver it, not those who produce it.

Copyright © 2006 Philip Bookman

Technorati: Business Strategy

The Zune Betrayal, Part Two

First, let us recall the first Zune betrayal.

In 2004, Microsoft launched a logo and testing initiative called PlaysForSure. This was intended to assure customers that PlaysForSure music and video content would work on PlaysForSure devices, and bring order out of the chaos of competing digital rights management schemes and player technologies that befuddled them. Windows Media Player would be the hub, connecting PlaysForSure content with PlaysForSure devices. Hardware and content vendors climbed on board, including BestBuy, Gateway, Napster, Samsung, Linksys, Audiovox, Virgin Electronics, Wal-Mart, Dell and HP.

It took the various vendors a long time to get all the pieces of the puzzle to line up properly. Before the PlaysForSure ecosystem had a decent number of devices and a good supply of content, Apple’s iPod and iTunes had captured seventy percent of the market. A key to Apple’s iPod success was iTunes. Unlike Microsoft’s Media Player that ran only on Windows, free iTunes software ran on Windows and Macintosh computers. Where Microsoft had to count on myriad vendors to all get PlaysForSure right, Apple controlled all the parts of the system, from the iTunes content store to the iPod players, and thus could assure it all worked together seamlessly.

In 2005, Microsoft decided it had to change attacks. Learning the lesson of this marketplace from Apple’s example and PlaysForSure’s difficulties, it cloned the iPod/iTunes model and announced Zune. The Zune device looks like an iPod. Content comes from an online store called Zune Marketplace, like the iTunes store. Zune software running on Windows glues it all together, like the iTunes software. In doing this, Microsoft left its PlaysForSure partners in the lurch.

It appears likely that this kind of partner abandonment will happen again in 2007. Apple has lots of buzz about its impending iPhone, expected to be a heavenly blend of iPod and cell phone (please note, everything Steve Jobs announces for Apple is, by cosmic definition, heavenly). The Microsofties responsible for Zune have also acknowledged that they are planning a Zune phone, as they better be, since they must not cede any advantage to the iPod. This means going into competition with all the PDA and cell phone providers that use Windows CE as the operating system for some or all of their phones. Windows CE has a substantial market presence and is used by most of the major manufacturers. So when Microsoft betrays them by going into direct competition with them, it will be no small thing. Some, like Samsung, will have the honor of being twice spurned. This is a problem Apple does not have.

It will be interesting to see the impact these betrayals have on the willingness of other companies to partner with Microsoft initiatives in the future.

Fooled twice, shame on me.

Copyright © 2006 Philip Bookman

Technorati: Zune, Microsoft

Looney Zune Decision Stifles Gift Sales

Microsoft's silly decision to make its Zune software only run on Windows XP SP2 (with Vista support coming the end of January) has had an interesting unintended consequence. Before you buy a Zune for someone as a gift, you have to know which operating system they use. If they have a Mac, forget it. If they use an older release of Windows, forget it. It is particularly funny that iTunes can run on more Windows computers (Windows 2000 SP4, all XP releases and Vista) than Zune.

The iPod has become a favorite gift choice, particularly for Christmas. My anecdotal evidence is that many such shoppers have no idea of the operating system used by many of the folks they are shopping for. So how many holiday shoppers who might consider a Zune choose an iPod simply to avoid this foolishness?

I think this falls into the "we didn't think this through" category. Microsoft has made it harder to choose a Zune than an iPod as a gift. If they do not release Mac software, this problem will continue.

This bonehead move ranks with the goofy way the Zune store requires you to buy points that you then use to buy content. But that's another rant for another day...

Microsofties, please repeat after me: we will create no dopey obstacles to someone choosing our product.

Now port the Zune software to the Mac's OS X. I've run out of adjectives that are synonymous with stupid.

Copyright © 2006 Philip Bookman

Technorati: Zune, Microsoft