Some Assembly Required

Thoughts about the Amazon - Audible acquisition

Amazon announced today that they are picking up Audible.com for a cool $300 million. As a customer (and some might say a fan) of both companies I have more than a passing interest in how this will all work out. Clearly Audible has established itself as the market leader in the digital audio book space. It's also no secret that Amazon is looking to scale in all digital media in a big way. This transaction represents a logical tuck-in acquisition that complements Amazon's existing products in digital music and movies.

The more interesting question is how this will impact the brewing competition between Amazon and Apple's iTunes Music Store. Audible is the incumbent provider of digital audio book content on iTMS, and at the very least it represents a major step in achieving competitive parity from a "products offered" basis between the two. Beyond that step, one could envision the deal dynamics between Audible and Apple changing at some point in the future, now that they have another major channel for their products.

In terms of all media, digital audio books are a relatively small component (in the sub-billion dollar range), but reports indicate that over 25% of Americans listen to some form of audio books, and with the proliferation and low cost of digital players this is clearly a segment to watch. After all, if we listen to Steve Jobs we know that physical book reading is on the decline.

Where U Been?

So much for the New Years resolution to kick the blog into high gear. A big ass work project landed in my lap the week before Christmas that required my daily attention for the better part of three weeks. A core team of madmen worked 24X7 only taking the 25th off and delivered the goods to a big prospective client on January 3. It went Really Well. This only meant more crazy work hours and more travel.

Last week I did my annual pilgrimage to Macworld Expo. This was my fifth year in a row, but the crazy work schedule out there meant that I only had an hour or so at the conference. I missed the Keynote, but I did get to browse the Expo floor, and put my hands on a new MacBookAir. Darn sexy machine, but with the throngs of people trying to get at them I only had a few minutes to try one out.

In total, I spent less than 48 hours in the Bay Area - flying in on Tuesday for a quick lunch with my team at Buck's in Woodside, a late afternoon meeting at The Mothership, and a late drive up to SF to meet an entrepreneur friend for a late dinner at the Daily Grill on Union Square. The next day I was up for a 6:00 am conference call that lasted until lunch, when I finally hit the Expo until my next meeting. That night I had drinks with some rockstars, then took a red-eye to Texas to meet my true technology rockstar partners for another presentation to The Big Prospect. Whew...

Next week: Texas, Malibu and more sleep deprivation...

"Mac mindset" claim is more marketing than science

My friends have suspected my Mac fetish was a psychological condition all along, so I hesitate to add to the fodder, but Mac elitism takes center stage in the following article at ArsTechnica:

"Mac mindset" claim is more marketing than science

Image from Mike Krahulic and Jerry Holkins