How Not To Blog ?

People will never feel comfortable paying for Wi-Fi access at exorbitant rates. Who wants to be charged by the minute or hour.. or megabyte... just for the privelege of being outside the home?

When is someone going to come along with a nice little script that allows businesses to sell targeted text ads (like Google Adwords) to display to users surfing on their wifi networks for free?

Is broadband really so expensive that companies can only think of how to charge for the "luxury" of internet everywhere? They're missing the exponential value to business everywhere by limiting the natural outgrowth of being online at home.

In my example above the more you would like me to use your wifi the more money I could actually make you.

Businesses and enterprising citizens would be screaming to spread their wifi connections everywhere. The whole country would be blanketed with free high-speed wireless in less than 3 years.

To help the process, I wouldn't mind some kind of innocent tracking cookie in my jar that allows you to show me only those ads you're pretty sure I would be interested in. Don't show a lot.. perhaps rotate one ad (and one ad only) every 2-3 minutes. That way, I'd want to see what the next lone ad is, instead of wanting to avoid that section of my screen entirely. I think an ad scarcity model would work because I think most people would long for some kind of external message/validation.

Google or some other company would surely make a killing on such ads, guaranteeing their own future relevance in the process. I would almost say that Google needs this kind of growth if it wants exponentially greater profitability.

Continue to think of WiFi as a commodity, and you miss where the real money is. Traffic.

In China, Microsoft will start offering large discounts on its products to those who have bootleg versions and are willing to rat on their suppliers.

Who in their right mind would think of something like this? This is as stupid as Ballmer wanting to make PCs in China and India cheaper than the software you want on it.

The "discount" of 50% is still expensive for most Chinese, which is why the black market for software and other media thrives. Walk through any market in any good-sized city in Asia and you will find every kind of Microsoft product imaginable for $4 or less. (Even this is a little expensive.)

As far as they're concerned, the product is real (the CDs work 95% of the time, just like the authentic version - ok, so I know some people). So much for US companies losing billions to piracy - tell me how? Most of the people who purchase the bootleg versions would never in their lives have paid full retail price for it. In many large cities you can't even find a place that sells software. Much of the piracy that occurs is in internet cafes and other communal settings, where one bootleg copy is ghosted to every computer. A lot of students use Excel after class to work on a project, for example.

By the calculation of companies like Microsoft, every person who used a bootleg version was actually going to purchase the full retail version, but the bootleg was cheap and readily available so they purchased that, instead. This kind of tomfoolery sounds great in the news, but there's no substance behind it. It would be interesting to see some research done that reflected the reality of piracy in developing countries.

They should actually be thanking pirates for doing them a favor and ultimately helping their bottom line by the magic of free brand building and free advertising. They get $0 distribution and marketing costs all across Asia and South America, among other places. Consider it a promotional copy that got way out of hand. (But that's good under certain conditions, right?)

Here's the How for Microsoft...

If everyday Chinese are forced to buy Microsoft products, they wont. (Unless it's the same price as the bootleg - market forces are at work here. And there's no way to stop piracy in China. You've got to be kidding!)

If you crack down too hard (wasting much precious time and resources with nothing substantial to show for it in the end) then the market for FREE software will explode leaving you with no street cred in the largest consumer market in the history of humanity.

Let piracy flourish with Microsoft products in developing countries. Build your brand among the up-and-coming class. Educate them about how your crap smells a better than the free, low-class crap they could be using right now. You're Microsoft, dammit. "You want to be rich like Bill Gates? Then buy from Microsoft." Fuck Windows Longcock. Call it Windows VIP. Use slivers of real gold in the product packaging. (No pirates in their right mind would want to follow you.) Suck their little Chinese penises with every Enterprise Server purchase. They'll love it!

Then, when they're middle class enough to purchase your products, most of them will. If a few people who now could afford to purchase your products don't.. so what? Heck, I started using Windows when it first came out.. but I didn't actually buy it until I was older and could afford it. That first copy of your shi7 product made me very proud. I still love your shi7 products for some unknown reason. Even the Linux nerds keep multiple OSes and IE on their boxes.

My guess is that for every dollar companies like Microsoft, Time Warner, Macromedia, Adobe, Disney want lawmakers to think they're losing, they're probably only really losing about 5-10 cents. Firing a few thousand overpaid WASPs is a whole lot easier and cheaper than combatting international piracy.

They should just shut the hell up, focus on piracy in rich countries like the US and Europe, and devote more time and energy to building better products - the kind that are actually worth the pirates time and effort - and try to understand the value of a little creative disruption.

Embrace what China is. Don't work against it. It is changing. Are you?

Philip Winn talks about his experiences with the new Napster at Blogcritics.

In 5 years, who will remember either? The iPod's cool novelty will pass gas, and there will have been an even better device to come along that will start another wave of copycats. A small device with a full-color display that lets you experience music like people are starting to experience and share photos and blogs with variable pricing plans would do the trick.

The only great thing about mobile phones in the US is that you can purchase a subsidized one that would have cost you a lot more if you commit yourself to a service plan. (You're also locked, which would be a benefit to the media companies.) Europe, with it's much better and more flexible GSM legacy, is actually looking to the US companies as a model for expanded profitability.

Why not the same thing for an iPod Shuffle and regular iPod? $40 and $15 a month for 2 years for the Shuffle. You'll break about even with the first $40 on the Shuffle. Wrap it with a revamped Napster-like buffet music plan according to how much people are paying you every month, and by locking your users in you can at least stave off an attack from another hardware company with a better product until you get your engineering department in order.

In other words, give me a good reason to give you more of my hard-earned money. The illusion of cheap is good enough for most people, including the millions more who haven't bought your products because of the price.