The launch of the iPad last week saw Google’s mad scrum to get it’s book site up to date with a brand new interface design finally embracing Google’s usual sense of great usability, something Google Books previously sorely lacked. A set of several cover flow scroll throughs of categories and genres with reading suggestions now meets you on the first page and improved My Library tools.
Funny thing is, I’m still discovering new things about the site. In fact I’ve only just discovered that you…
Android needs help.
… explains a bewildered Om Malik at Gigaom. Figures taken from AdMob’s latest report yesterday estimate Google’s Android Market sales at a measley $5 million a month paling vastly in comparison with Apple’s hugely successful App Store. Although surprising, it’s not necessarily shocking. To understand the root of this, it’s well worth going back to the business model itself.
After winning their fraught battle against Toshiba’s HD-DVD in February 2008, Sony are once again mobilising themselves. After a slow start with low sales, Sony will be publicising Blu-ray heavily through the blockbuster film releases of Terminator Salvation and Angels and Demons later this year. Despite this, shouldn’t they be changing to a strategy that focuses on the value proposition of Blu-ray? (more…)