technology

How Services Make Hardware More Valuable

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So I'm using my Netflix disc in my Wii and am pretty impressed with it.  Great picture, runs smooth.  Controls are a bit weird, because it's a mix of standard metaphor and Wii control.  Overall it's pretty good.

I'm also using the Wii for the first time since I got tired of No More Heroes II.  This makes me think about some of the upcoming games for the Wii, and how now the Wii has this service and others, and . . .

Then I realize that I'm viewing my Wii differently because of one release.  This is something you, the progeek, will be facing: services change the value of media devices, and there's a lot of people out there offering services.

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The Subscription Age

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You ever get a magazine subscription – and sometimes read it?  You still renew it you know . . . just in case.

Or maybe you get comics in a pull at a comic store.  You buy them, and might even read them.

Or a book club.

Or . . .

Well you get the idea.  We all have experience with subscriptions one way or another.  However in an age of eMedia, DLC games, and the iPad-ness, think about what kind of subscriptions you're going to see.

I think we're going to see a lot more subscriptions in the future.  Your business models, your publishing models, and your estimates on profitability are going to need to keep this in mind.  If you're writer, an ePublisher, a game developer, this will be a factor.

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The Wall Goes Up

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When my IT career first got really going, way back in 1995-1996, I had applied the "modern" tools of job searching.  These were advanced things like online job ads, fax modems, and so forth.  Yes, there was a time when people not only used faxes a lot, doing it from your computer was impressive.

So as my career progressed in 1996, I was speculating on my career and noting the role of technology in the job search.  I met people who were keeping up with technology in their job searches, and I sensed something happening, a division among people in how they used technology in their careers.  Technology was an "enhancer" and people using it would get more and better connected, and it would produce a cultural shift.

I christened it "The Wall."  As technology advanced, some people would be more on the "inside", connected by technology and social understanding to career opportunities, some would not keep up on the technical changes to the job search and career building and loose out.

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