Flipboard

Flipboard, Apple, and why a single channel distribution is a scary place to live

I like Flipboard. It's very well executed and quite cool. After a rough first day scaling-wise, they are the talk of the digerati. There are unknown issues regarding the appropriateness of content scraping rather than using syndication feeds, but I will leave those conversations to others.

Flipboard raised a boatload of venture capital -- reportedly $10.5 million -- from very top tier firms. It got me thinking about what the due diligence must have been like, especially in terms of competitive analysis. I am not seeing many barriers to entry for a whole slew of competitors. The application itself is clearly the descendant of Pointcast, a late 1990s screen saver that stylishly fed you headlines and data (in a snazzy, late 90s kind of way). There is a screensaver built into macOS (RSS visualizer) that is reminiscent of what Pointcast built. It's like a tablet version of Pointcast, with some social media spin thrown in. There is no real reason that many others could not pretty much clone what Flipboard has built.

The one competitor I would be worried about is not a start up. I would be worried that Apple likes the application so much that they build a version of it right into iOS. Think about it for a moment. This is a core tablet app. It takes the web and feeds and formats it in a manner optimized for tablet consumption. Now roll into the mix that this is an iPad app, and Apple is the sole distribution channel for the software, and you have got a potentially perilous situation.

Apple could offer to buy Flipboard, but as Apple is the only distributor, they would have a ton of leverage in the price negotiations (and if you raise 10.5 million, your investors are expecting a grand slam). Say Apple offers to buy Flipboard for $10 million. Flipboard would naturally say no that offer (they probably raised money at a $40 million post-funding valuation). Apple says fine, clones Flipboard, rolls it into iOS and then pulls Flipboard from the app store because it duplicates iOS functionality.

At the end of the day the content scraping issues may be the least of their problems.

Music Sales to Save Radio?

I've heard quite a few very senior radio execs talk recently about retail music sales being a way for radio to generate additional revenue. They want to put a transaction "button" on radios that allow for upstream communication to enable a listener to buy a song that is currently playing. This is real "out of the frying pan and into the fire" thinking. The music business is one of the few industries more messed up than radio.

Let me share a quote from Phil Schiller, SVP at Apple...

"The iPod makes money. The iTunes Music Store doesn't,"

Apple and their music store are currently dominating the music industry. Apple runs ITMS at break even so they can sell iPods at 50% gross margin.

Music is a loss leader for Apple. Copying the loss leader product of another industry to save your industry is not going to fly.

AP Review

Associated Press did a favorable review of Foneshow.

They also did a video.

Erik's Obligatory iPhone Reaction Post

Looks cool.

EDGE? Non wifi browsing won't be fun.

No tactile feedback on the keyboard. I have to look at the keyboard while dialing/typing. That soft QWERTY keyboard is really tightly spaced.

I can't add my own applications?

No Java or Flash in the browser?

No wireless synch? Not even calendar or contacts via BlueTooth?

It's kind of big. Not so pocketable.

That screen+WiFi+BlueTooth is going to eat the battery before lunchtime.

I have a variety of opinions on the viability of mobile video, too many for this post.

It sure is pretty though...

I know this is iPhone version 1.0, but is it like iPod 1.0, or like Newton 1.0 ?

All that said, if Apple wants to send a unit over so that we can confirm Foneshow compatibility, I'll happily try it out (if I can wrestle it away from Nic).