The end of free web
In January I made a few predictions about what the year had in store for the digital world. One that I did not put in but have talked about for ages is the end of free online services.
Basically as ad spend decreases and take up of online services increases, something has to give. A recent story on the BBC website shows BT’s new aggressive stance on asking iPlayer to pay for bandwidth.
More of the same will come as people watch more video, save more photos and re-post more content via social networks. Add to this the cut throat pricing of broadband, reduced advertising revenues and suddenly you are looking at an unsustainable business model.
So, a quick review of my predictions from January:
- Video on Demand finally gets in to peoples homes for real (iPlayer) √
- Video on Demand gets a new name (iPlayer) √
- Interactive TV advertising (Sky green button) √
- BT Vision moves from Microsoft to open platforms (Or Sky goes onto xbox 360) √
- DRM free VOD (can’t win them all!) x
- Mobile web (go go iPhone, Nokia and Andriod) √
- Nokia Tube turns out not to be an iPhone beater (yep I own one, it’s pants) √
- iPhone Nano (By Autumn, I promise) x
- Mac tablet (See above) x
- No one buys Twitter (still) √
So 7 out of ten is not bad considering we are only at the start of June. And whilst you may or may not agree with all of these it’s pretty interesting to see how fast things change.
Another foot note from January was my prediction that Apple would start to slip form wonder kid to main stream business and given the recent launch of new iPhone, this seems to be happening.
Although I would hate to see Apple done anything than succeed as I love how Steve has turned a business round by giving customers what they want! And that’s where we are, helping you give your customers what they want, although I am no Steve Jobs, I know we can help you make a big difference.
Let’s see where we are in another 6 months:
1. Windows 7 is just as rubbish as Vista?