Technology Futures

Four guys jammin' on a New York subway, with their, um, iPhones....better than you might think.

The New York Times can now be read on the iPad via an upgraded NY Times app. The full edition of the paper is available for free until sometime next year, when a subscription fee will be charged. If I was the owner of a struggling newspaper with declining circulation, I'd be not only going the app route for distribution, I'd put together some kind of deal to bundle in an iPad with something like a twelve month easy payment plan for the iPad. Like it or not, this is the future of newspapers and magazines.

I was talked into going to see the movie "The Social Network" last night. Ostensibly about the rise of Facebook, it's hard to know how much of it was based on facts and how much was fantasy. I know that I thought the movie would never end. I can't recall another film in recent memory where every single character was so consistently unlikable. Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, probably is hard to get along with, but by the end of the movie, I was starting to feel sorry for him. If you check the Wikipedia entry on Mark Zuckerberg", Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter, admits that the movie may not have much to do with the real story behind Facebook. Fair enough--few movies based on a real life story do stick closely to the facts.

What I found depressing was the relentless anti-business, anti-geek, anti-software message the film seemed to have. After watching the film, if you have not worked in the software business, it would be easy to leave the theatre thinking that software is developed by misogynist, greedy, self-centered nerds with personality disorders who have only two activities: writing software or drinking heavily and using illegal drugs. There were only six other people in the theatre, so I suspect this movie has already passed its prime.

The iPad is breaking every consumer electronic sales record and setting new records. The sales records set by the device include biggest first day sales, biggest first month sales, and biggest first year sales. Apple is on track to sell something north of ten million iPads in the first year. By comparison, the DVD player, in its first year, sold a measly 350,000 units. Apple sold 300,000 iPads on the first day.

Sales are so massive that the iPad has created a new category of consumer electronics and already ranks fourth, behind TVs, phones, and laptop computers.