itunes – Digital Dialogues

The Video Revolution, Broadband, the Mobile Web, etc.

What is the state of the video revolution, video internet delivery, broadband, “smartphones”, education, entertainment and the mobile web?

Here’s a round-up of some recent links on these subjects:

In a video-taped panel discussion, Walt Mossberg, tech writer and reviewer for the Wall Street Journal discusses the video revolution and the problem the United States has with Broadband on beet.tv.

ABI Research just completed a series of reports highlighting the mobile web and predicts that the Mobile Browser market will grow tenfold to 1.5 billion units by 2013.

The Smartphone market is continuing to grow, occupying 22% of the Asian mobile market in 2008, and worldwide smartphone shipments almost doubled between 2006 and 2007, with North American shipments also doubling.

Piper Jaffray‘s semi-annual survey of teens sees legal music purchasing continuing to rise, along with iPhone ownership and plans to purchase an iPhone doubling.

iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the United States, surpassing brick-and-mortars like Best Buy and Target in 2007, and finally Wal-Mart in 2008. Through iTunes you can also watch and rent movies on your computer, mobile device, or directly to your TV with no computer required.

More user-friendly set-top boxes for viewing web content on televisions will be coming to market to join the likes of Apple TV and Tivo (with Amazon’s unbox content), with Blockbuster, among others, now working on devices.

As for the mobile web in education, mLearning, (the shortened term for Mobile Learning) research, studies, whitepapers, and initiatives have been growing, with the work of many schools and universities informing the developments and discoveries. For one recent example among many, see Abilene Christian University’s initiative and list of resources on the subject.

iTunes University

We’ve been busy this past month setting up our iTunes University site on the iTunes Music Store, and it’s been a lot of work. So far, we have 10 faculty with active courses, and most of them are already podcasting and or at least learning the necessary steps. With all this work, it’s been tough to keep up with blog posts!

What I can say at this point is that things are really coming along, and the work-study students in our office and the other students I speak to around campus are really excited about the idea. What they say is Continue reading “iTunes University”

Two Big Media Holdouts Open Up

As a big fan of Web 2.0 and free and open access, I was excited today to see that two old-media holdouts, Sony BMG and the Wall Street Journal, took progressive steps toward rethinking their business models and opening up access to their content.

The WSJ announced today that it will open up free access to all of its editorials, op-eds, video interviews and commentary which were previously only viewable to paid subscription customers. No doubt this decision came, in part, from increased pressure and competition from the blogosphere. Although the Journal is not completely free yet, I am looking forward to accessing these free features and think the company will eventually discover what the NY Times did: although free, open access is clearly good for consumers, it is also good for business.

On the music front, Sony BMG, (Sony’s music division), announced today that it would finally rollout their music catalog without DRM, Digital Rights Management. Continue reading “Two Big Media Holdouts Open Up”