Versatile Amphibian

My predictions for 2013’s TMT trends have so far covered wearable computing , 4G and self-driving cars . In this fourth installment I’ll look at the emergence of truly digital business models in the book market. What it is: the speed at which ebooks have come to prominence as a viable alternative to print seems to have taken the publishing industry somewhat by surprise. So far the business model by which these digital books have been sold has been a carbon copy of the physical book market: titles are priced and sold individually, often for the same or a higher price than the physical version. But many of the models that have driven the growth – and death – of other media in digital markets are also feasible for print. And it’s these that I expect to come to prominence next year. My prediction: 2013 will mark the largest shake up in the business model and structure of the trade (aka consumer) book market since the paperback book.  The number of large publishers ...

In my first post about predictions for 2013 I covered wearable computing. In this second instalment I’ll look at “4G” in the UK, another hot topic amongst my clients. Apologies to non-UK readers for the parochialism – perhaps there will be some useful context for your own market within this prediction. What is it: “4G” is a term used to described the next generation of mobile network. 4th Generation networks offer a number of user experience advantages over their predecessors, foremost of which are greater connection speeds and quicker responses. In the real world this means less time spent waiting for web pages and Internet-connected applications to load and respond and smoother video when using cellular networks. In the UK we already have a limited 4G service delivered by Everything Everywhere; however it will be summer 2013 before we see the long term networks come on stream from the other UK networks (EE will also ultimately move their network to mirror their competitors). Pre...