Monthly Archives: March 2011

The NYT’s Melting Iceberg Syndrome

March 27, 2011 – 5:09 pm

TweetCould the New York Times be viable as a digital-only operation? What a ridiculous question: With almost a million copies sold every day, why would this preeminent newspaper even consider such a drastic withdrawal from the physical world? Truth is: there is no urgency, no need to initiate, nor to accelerate the switch — at [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in online publishing | Tagged , | Comments (16)

RIM: The inmates have taken over the asylum

March 27, 2011 – 5:00 pm

Tweetby Jean-Louis Gassée Once upon a time, the Blackberry was the king of smartphones. After a succession of Psion PDAs and Palm devices, I loved my Blackberry, it was the perfect PIM (Personal Information Manager). Email, contacts and calendar functions worked well together — and Exchange integration was the killer Enterprise feature. It even made [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in hardware | Tagged , | Comments (82)

NYTimes’ “Fair” Prices

March 21, 2011 – 7:10 am

TweetToday, both Jean-Louis and I struggle with the same topic: last week’s announcement of the New York Time’s strange paywall structure. For a digital newspaper, there is no such thing as a fair price. Too many questionable assumptions, too many variables, too many ways to play with data. The Monday Note and my day job [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in newspapers, online publishing | Tagged , | Comments (47)

The NY Times: Un-Free At Last!

March 21, 2011 – 7:10 am

Tweet On March 28th, after much handwringing, the New York Times will finally deploy a paywall. NYT fans, your author included, rejoice: We see this as a necessary condition for the newspaper’s survival. Necessary…but not sufficient. A “small matter of implementation’’ remains an obstacle on the paper’s path to greatness in the digital era. A [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in newspapers, online publishing | Tagged , | Comments (28)

RSS Lenin’s Rope

March 13, 2011 – 6:25 pm

TweetAs I write this column, I wonder: Am I slipping into schizophrenia? My right brain is frying, overloaded by a never ending whirlwind of new digital tools, from hardware to internet applications. My left brain, which powers both my current daily job and this Monday Note, is cooler, skeptical. Both sides look on as the [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in advertising, online publishing | Comments (33)

WebOS Everywhere

March 13, 2011 – 6:22 pm

Tweetby Jean-Louis Gassée Where have we heard a similar mantra? Despite their apparent divorce from Microsoft, it sounds like HP’s brains have been infected with a mutation of the “Windows Everywhere” virus. Let’s recap. Late April 2010, HP acquires Palm for $1.2B. In July 2010, then-CEO Mark Hurd tells us he didn’t buy WebOS just [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in Uncategorized, hardware | Tagged , | Comments (29)

Mobile First, and a Mag

March 6, 2011 – 7:54 pm

TweetTwo French journalists come to me with a question: which business model for their new project? They are about to resuscitate a fairly well-know trade journalism brand, planning to go mostly online — and marginally on dead trees. As an answer to their new investor’s questions, they first considered the “tried and true” formula: free [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in online publishing | Comments (7)

iPad 2 Launch Notes

March 6, 2011 – 7:54 pm

TweetA little over a year ago, on January 27th 2010, Jobs gave the first iPad keynote. (YouTube has many clips such as this one.) Back then, the tone was more searching than assertive. As a “third device” between a PC and a smartphone, between a MacBook and an iPhone, the iPad was looking for its [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in hardware | Tagged | Comments (3)