The Strategy Review

The Sony MousePhone

From The Raw Feed:

Sony has come up with a PC mouse that flips open to become a PHONE, which you can use making VoIP calls on Skype or Google Talk.

I know, I know ...

WhoseSpace?

From The Independent:

Angry members of MySpace, the personal file-sharing website for young adults, are accusing Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation of censoring their postings and blocking their access to rival sites.

The 38 million subscribers to MySpace, which News Corp bought for $629m (£355m) last July, discovered that when they wrote to each other about rival video-swapping site YouTube, the words were automatically deleted, and attempts to download video images from YouTube led to blank screens.

The intervention by News Corp in the traditionally open-access world of the web - in particular the alteration of personal user profiles - provoked a storm of angry posts in online "blogs".

... and that includes porn ...

... as you can see here (this link is direct to socialporn.com, so not worksafe ...). Via Techcrunch.

Intel's hat (and it's a big one ...) flops into the media ring

From WSJ:

Intel Corp. announced deals with 10 major video-content suppliers, as part of a coming-out party for a broad home-technology effort called Viiv.

The big chip maker, which is trying to convince hardware makers and content owners to adopt its Viiv technology and branding, announced at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas that initial supporters of the effort include Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit, NBC, DirecTV Inc., Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN and Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks.

Where's the money in movie houses?

Interesting little piece via Ars Technica on cinema economics for you ... popcorn, for example, makes 90c on the $!

More on Google Video biggie

From the WSJ:

Under the major upgrade to Google's video-search service, consumers will be able to pay to download and view videos, such as television shows, on their computers from Google content partners such as TV companies, people familiar with the matter say. Google plans to announce partnerships with some major players tomorrow, including CBS Corp. and the National Basketball Association, these people say. By virtue of Google's huge presence online, the move could place Google in competition with other emerging powers in Internet distribution of video such as Apple Computer Inc.

US online ad spend to hit $16bn in 2006

From Ad Age:

Nearly half of the chief marketing officers at Fortune 500 companies said they plan to increase their online advertising budgets by 30% this year.

Social shopping big growth driver for ecommerce

From iMedia Connection:

The rise of social networks is having a positive impact on ecommerce in the US. Along with demographic changes and growing broadband penetration, it is one of the key factors that drove online shopping spending up by 25 percent in 2005.

Read Diane Mermigas ...

.... in the Hollywood Reporter, if you want a really seasoned, challenging view of what's happening in convergent media. This lady pulls NO punches, her column on '06 content trends and issues from Page 15 in the latest - January 3rd - issue, which is not online unless you subscribe (strictly for the hardcore industry person I'd say, I steal my print copy from the good folks at Soho House :-)) throws serious cold water over the fighting cats (or if you prefer mating dogs ... yuk!) of the latest Big Deals (see Google "rescuing" AOL, for example).

But, like any truly respectable pundit, she has answers to the big bad questions too ... not that any of the old Big Media farts she's pointing to will want to hear them just yet ... but she understands and articulates very well that when the consumer is (really, this time) in charge, all of the value's up for grabs. All of it, guys. Not just the corners ...
So ... buying MySpace (or in the UK, Friends Reunited) is great. But whaddayagonnadowithem?

Go Diane! Thank God for real thinkers who write ... and get published where they might actually get read ... read this on Microsoft's recently-declared advertising ambitions to get a flavour of her thinking.

How to talk dirty, influence people, and get $200m too ...

From WSJ:

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. is giving its star radio personality, Howard Stern, more than $200 million in stock as reward for meeting agreed upon subscriber targets.

The satellite radio company, which will begin broadcasting Mr. Stern's controversial talk show on Monday, awarded 34.4 million common shares to Mr. Stern and his agent, Don Buchwald, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday. Based on Wednesday's closing price of $6.36, the shares are valued at about $218.8 million.

Look behind you!

From Om Malik's blog:

Napster, Real and other music pretenders you have been warned - Microsoft will own you! If you were looking for proof that you will become one of the minions in Microsoft’s grand music strategy, all you needed to do was tune in to the webcast of Bill G’s keynote at CES. Partnering with MTV for URGE, Gates’ has gone back to familiar time tested strategy: get in bed with the most powerful company in the business you eventually want to own.

WMP11 plus URGE unveiled by MS

From Microsoft:

LAS VEGAS — Jan. 4, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. and MTV Networks, a division of Viacom Inc., today unveiled the new Windows Media^® Player 11 and offered an early look at the URGE digital music service during the kickoff keynote address for the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates was joined onstage by MTV Networks’ Music Group President Van Toffler and music superstar Justin Timberlake to preview the seamless integration of Microsoft^® Windows Media Player 11 and MTV Networks’ URGE, which is designed to bring the emotional connection of music to the forefront of the digital entertainment experience.

More useful info re collapse of traditional biz ...

From The Long Tail:

I did find another useful resource, the RIAA's database of Gold (over 500,000 sold), Platinum (1-2 million), Multi-Platinum (2-10 million) and Diamond (10 million and up) albums since 1958. The RIAA introduced Platinum in 1976, Multi-Platinum in 1984, and Diamond in 1999. I ran queries for each year and compiled the numbers, combining all four categories. I now know better than to say that the statistics speak for themselves, but they certainly are interesting:

More wages of sin, plus great image that we had to link to ...

The attorney general of Florida has begun an investigation of Sony's DRM, which installs itself without your consent, spies on your actions, and can't be readily uninstalled from your computer. Florida's AG joins New York's AG, Eliot Spitzer in opening an investigation into Sony's misdeed. (Via boingboing)

Just how bad is it?

From Chris Anderson's The Long Tail, a look at music sales ...

I've been collecting data on just how bad it's getting in the music industry, and this useful list of the 100 all-time bestselling albums offered another lens on the meltdown. I looked up the release dates of each and grouped them in half-decade bins. The data speaks for itself.

2005 IN REVIEW: THE WAR ON BLOGS

From an interesting blog by Michelle Malkin:

To the dismay of the MSM, the blogosphere didn't go away in 2005. Here are some of the more memorable moments in the clash of the bloggers vs. MSM

Discovering Cory Doctorow's boingboing blog

Can't let this go without pointing you at it and sampling a few links ... Cory's building a career as a pro-blogger and massive good luck from us! Here are some links to give you an idea of how good blogging can be:

1. No really, it's best for the artist ... list of Coldplay CD restrictions.


2. The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years, via boingboing from PC World.


3. Video: Flickr CC-licensed pics set to hilarious music and lyrics.


4. Best mashups of 2005.


5. Every #1 song ever to appear on Billboard Top 100 squashed into one long song.


6. Texas sues Sony over spyware as well as rootkits.

More on media evolution in China ... back to the future for US?

... courtesy of Ars Technica:

What does the Chinese government do to Internet pornographers? A 20-year-old in eastern China received a 15 year jail sentence for selling downloads of movies with pornographic content. There are some things that simply cannot be repressed. Despite the risk of incarceration, the Chinese people continue to produce and distribute pornographic content. Will the Chinese government continue to arrest hundreds of citizens every year for perpetrating victimless crimes? I doubt that censorship and oppression in China will end any time soon, and I can't help but wonder if it is an ominous illustration of what Americans can expect to see in the future as our own government continues to enforce unreasonable limitations on free speech with its war against obscenity.

Lessig goes to bat on another issue ... a must read

Courtesy of Noah Brier, an extraordinary story that brings together the very private with the very public.

As head boy at a legendary choir school, Lawrence Lessig was repeatedly molested by the charismatic choir director, part of a horrific pattern of child abuse there. Now, as one of America’s most famous lawyers, he’s put his own past on trial to make sure such a thing never happens again.

For fun and insight (rarely seen together at New Year) ...

... read these Top Links of 2005 from Noah Brier.

RIAA = Goliath, but more Davids emerging ...

Piece from chron.com on more misguided skullduggery:

When the music industry comes knocking on the doors of those it accuses of illegally sharing songs online, most of the those receiving these subpoenas swallow hard, reach for their wallets and settle.

But a growing number of people are standing up to the Recording Industry Association of America's lawsuits, and there's increasing evidence there may be some problem with the cases the RIAA is bringing.

Actually, these guys are reminding me of The Spanish Inquisition a la Python, not merely due to their taste for macabre comedy (alongside hack pantomine cackling + nasty suprises for otherwise innocent bods), but also the retro-McCarthyism of their style ...

Walking to media freedom in China?

This takes brass balls:

Reporters at a Beijing newspaper known for covering sensitive topics walked off the job after an editor was removed this week amid efforts to tighten press controls, employees said Friday.

The informal strike at the Beijing News was highly unusual for China's entirely state-controlled media. It reflected tensions between communist leaders and media outlets, which have pushed the limits of official tolerance in recent years, sometimes drawing punishment for aggressive reporting on corruption and other politically charged issues.

Would we have the guts to do this? Hmmm... food for thought on the eve of 2006

US citizens stand firm in the face of the awful truth ...

A reassuring poll from Harris as reported in Editor and Publisher ...

More than four years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 22% of adults believe that Saddam Hussein "helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the United States on September 11," according to a new Harris Poll. And nearly one in four (24%) of all adults wrongly believe that "several of the hijackers who attacked the United States on September 11 were Iraqis."

This doesn't make me happy - you?