From my guest post at Digital Book World’s blog:

A lot of the discussion about eBooks tends to frame the format in absolutist and misleading terms.

“It will destroy print.”

“It will devalue the book.”

We shouldn’t make the mistake of assuming a growing new format will upend the entire industry (remember the fear concerning audiobooks?). The format will dictate the content and this makes for one of the most exciting shifts in the industry since the rise of mass-market paperbacks.

I bring up mass-markets as an analogy and a precedent. Could you imagine pitching the concept to publishers? “It’s a smaller trim size, printed on cheap paper, and we’ll charge a third of the hardcover price. Yes, hardcovers are beautiful objects, but we think there’s a big opportunity here in treating our books as disposable commodities.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if industry pessimists back then expressed the same fears of cannibalized sales and devalued content that they do now regarding eBooks.

Mass-markets defined their own readership (at airports and supermarkets) and genres (commercial and genre fiction); you don’t see biographies or political nonfiction in this format. Of the current top 20 bestsellers on the New York Times’ Paperback Mass-Market Fiction list, 8 have never been published in hardcover (disregarding the large-print hardcovers for Snow Angels and Hot on Her Heels).

The eBook format is no different. After the digital transition, we’ll find that certain books fit an eBook audience, while others are meant for print. Personally, this year I purchased hardcovers that I would never buy as an eBook (Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice), and vice versa (Steve Knopper’s Appetite for Self-Destruction).

Read the rest here.

: : : : : : : :

Forgive this one last jibe; I promise never to do it again — Rodarte presents leopard preens for you to strut down Orchard Road in.

Rodarte for Target, Dec 2009 (Seventeen Mag)

Nitrolicious reports:

The Rodarte for Target Go International collection consists of 55 pieces and will range from $9.99 for knee-highs to $79.99 for a leopard print jacket. According to a Target spokesman, the collection is “very feminine, yet very modern and incorporates a rich mix of patterns and fabrications and everything from sequins and bows to faux fur”.

Tokyo-based investment firm Integral is bailing Yohji Yamamoto, Inc. and Limi Yamamoto, Inc. out. Business as usual, or so it seems.

Integral To Buy Yohji Yamamoto Inc Out Of Bankruptcy (Nikkei)

Integral said the revamped firm will seek to strengthen Yohji Yamamoto’s retail and wholesale distribution channels. Yohji Yamamoto, the fashion house’s founder and namesake designer, will continue to design for the business.

I wonder if Integral’s involvement will have any influence on Yohji Yamamoto’s work in future. Will we start seeing more wearable designs and lower prices? Yohji Yamamoto once stated that he “designs for the woman who does not exist… the ideal woman.” (Time, 2005) Not exactly my idea of the standard Uniqlo shopper, which means not exactly a great idea for business these days.

Yohji Yamamoto, FW RTW 2006 (Style.com)

Uniqlo (Fast Retailing Co.), by the way, has been doing incredibly well of late, in contrast to the recent casualties in the Japanese luxury sector. Its business has also been fuelled by its recent entrance into Paris, and the general shift towards mass market brands in Japan (See Age of Bling is over as Japanese Dress Down).

We can probably heave a little sigh of relief for Yohji Yamamoto now, but I do think Integral and Yohji Yamamoto will have to face many more issues in the next few years.

In other news, I’m glad I still have quite a bit of time before graduation: LVMH to Freeze Hiring, Salaries in 2010

Jack Tretton, the outspoken President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, has boldly claimed the company takes more risks than Nintendo and caters to a wider audience than both of its competitors combined.

“In an industry that’s certainly had its challenges this year, we like to say that the environment where PlayStation wins is best for this industry. We have a brand that can play on a worldwide basis, young and old, male and female, where our competition tends to be relegated to either select regions or to select consumer audiences.

We don’t have unlimited money, we cater to a more mass market audience. I think we’re willing to take a little bit more risk than a competitor like Nintendo is and ultimately we deliver to the masses on a worldwide basis and that’s what we’ve done for the last 15 years.”

- Jack Tretton, Sony America

Source

A profound theme underlay many of the developments announced this week at Nokia World.  I summarise it as follows: smart mobile services for the next four billion consumers.  It’s not just the world’s well-heeled digital elite that will enjoy the rich facilities provided by modern mobile devices.  There’s huge latent demand for these services from people in the economic underclasses worldwide: a demand that should, and can, be met by increasingly low-priced handsets.

“Nokia Money” exemplifies this theme.  As Martin Perez explains in Information Week,

Nokia introduced a mobile payment service Wednesday that aims to make using your phone for financial services as easy as making a call or sending a sending a text message.

…it is likely emerging markets will be the targeted first because they are “underbanked” or “unbanked.”  The potential market for mobile payment services is huge, as there are an estimated 4 billion mobile phone users, but only about 1.6 billion bank accounts.

One of the prize-winning essays of last year’s Symbian Essay Contest, “Opportunities with smartphone technologies for the base of the pyramid“, written by Dhaka, Bangladesh, BRAC University student Iftekhar Ul Karim, provides a range of ideas to stimulate thinking about potential novel uses of smartphones for users in the so-called ‘Base of the pyramid’ (BoP) – the four billion poorest people on the planet:

The reach of smartphone technologies has not yet covered in toto the ground of BoP, nonetheless Symbian devices can innovatively rein in this concept of B24B (business-to-4-billion) that champions new thinking and new ways of doing business for smartphones in the world’s poorest markets.  Hence the BoP could be the biggest potential opportunity in the history of smartphone technologies…

Succeeding with smart mobile services for this expanded marketplace requires several things to happen:

• Innovative thinking about which services make most sense for these users;
• Ease of developer experimentationwith novel services;
• Reducing the costs of high-capability handsets.

As a great example of a lower-cost high-capability handset – and as a sign of even cheaper devices in the future – consider the Nokia 5320, announced in the lead-up to Nokia World:

New Delhi, India and Espoo, Finland – The latest addition in the Nokia touch phone portfolio, the Nokia 5230, is designed for those who lead an active life and use their mobile phone as their primary instrument for music, photos and videos, as well as sharing their lives online. With the Nokia 5230, consumers can get new content, be it songs from the Nokia Music Store or apps, games, videos and other services from the Ovi Store, directly from their phones. The solutions offering is complemented by A-GPS navigation and the latest version of Ovi Maps with aerial images, 3D landmarks for over 200 cities and terrain map views for pedestrian and drive navigation.

“Competitively priced at 149 EUR, we believe the Nokia 5230 is an unbeatable offer for many new customers who aspire a device that stars in music, mingles with social networks from Facebook to MySpace, navigates you to where it happens, when it happens,  and comes in an array of dazzling colors, ” said Jo Harlow, Vice President, Nokia…

The quoted price of just 149 EUR is before any network subsidy kicks in.  As recombu.com states:

Expect it to be free on a contract and around £100 on pay as you go, which is cheap for a touchscreen handset.

Some writers have been unimpressed by this kind of device, even asking that they be removed from statistics of smartphone market share.  They imply that, unless a device has the price-tag of the likes of an iPhone, it’s of little interest for developers.  The claim is that many people who buy any lower-priced Symbian-powered device are unaware of the possibility to download applications onto the device – or that they couldn’t afford these applications.  I disagree.  Where these writers see a reason to yawn, I see many reasons to become really excited.  Mobile phone users in the quickly growing markets  in, say, India and Indonesia, have great interest in the possibilities of their devices – especially when it’s the first computing device they own.  These mobile devices help the users to bridge information gaps, social gaps, and economic gaps.

As for pricing, here’s something worth bearing in mind.  Suppose an app sells for a particular price, P, in a country such as the USA.  If the price in India is P/10, there’s a good chance that 10 times as many people will buy it.  The opportunities are huge, for developers who are prepared to find them.

The Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post written by the aunt (Martha Gillis) of a U. S. soldier (Lt. Brian Bradshaw) killed in Afghanistan on the same day Michael Jackson died criticized the media for its non-stop coverage of Michael Jackson’s death and funeral. Ms. Gillis wrote:

“Mr. Jackson received days of wall-to-wall coverage in the media…Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers who died that week?”

Lt. Bradshaw’s mother, Mary Bradshaw, said she agreed with Martha Gillis, saying the nonstop coverage of Michael Jackson’s death has become “totally ridiculous” and laughable. “I can watch the news many nights and there’s no mention of what’s going on in Afghanistan or Iraq and there’s boys dying over there.”

I know that the letters and the comments from Lt. Bradshaw’s family probably came out of grief mixed with anger – and who could blame them? My heart would be broken if I was in the same situation. We all as a nation should thank Lt. Bradshaw for his service and sacrifice.

But – to answer the question posed by Aunt Martha Gillis – “Where was the coverage of her nephew’s death?” – there is a simple answer.

It’s the same answer to those who ask why A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) of the New York Yankees is paid (approximately) $28,000,000 for playing a game, but a New York City school teacher, who in the scheme of things has a much more important job, is paid a pittance by comparison.

No one will pay $50 to $400 a seat to watch a school teacher teach. But people are quite willing to pay to watch A-Rod play a game.

Same goes for Lt. Bradshaw and all of the other soldiers. They’re patriotic, selfless and brave and we thank them, but you’re not going to sell tickets and fill stadiums to watch Lt. Bradshaw and the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division perform maneuvers.

The harsh reality is money and market demand.

That’s the American market-driven capitalist system.

Michael Jackson didn’t start out famous. He was just one of the Jackson siblings. But Michael seemed to posses an extra measure of talent – a talent which he nurtured and perfected. He broke away from the Jackson Five and became a star on his own. This is not easy to do. (How many group-artists have “went solo” only to fail miserably?) Instead of relying on the security of the group dynamic with the Jackson Five, it was solely up to him as an individual to “make it.” If Michael failed, it would be his fault and his alone.

And make it he did. Michael Jackson set his sight on a goal and achieved it – surpassed it – surpassed everyone – and became, not just a star, but one of those rare Superstars that are known on every corner of the planet.

Isn’t this “the American Dream?” Poor kid grows up in the Midwest and becomes world-wide pop-star… Isn’t this what we’re taught to do no matter what our talent?

Like all other human beings who live on this world, Michael Jackson had his problems. Some of the problems brought on by wealth and fame. Some of the problems due to injury and health problems. Again – this is a story that has repeated itself time and time again – fame and fortune are hard to manage – especially when you’re not sure who your friends are or why they’re your friends. Are they after the money? The fame? Michael Jackson could trust no one completely.

Because Michael Jackson exploited the media, the media in return exploited him. It was a symbiotic relationship – one feeding off the other.

So the “wall-to-wall” coverage of Michael’s untimely and needless death should not be a surprise to anyone. He was after all their child.

And he was ours.

Michael Joseph Jackson – made in the USA.

"Off the Wall" 1979

It’s always a treat when one of your favorite designers does the high/low dance and takes a quick stab at mass market.  Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai, the designers behind Vena Cava, a Pattern Pulp favorite, are doing a meet and greet along with Alexander Wang at the Gap at 54th and 5th avenue today.  We had the pleasure of saying a quick hello as we tried on multiple pieces from both collections.  Swing by to meet the talent as well as try on the latest and greatest from the king of khaki.