The Case-Mate Dockster Leather Case for iPhone 3G is available and can be purchased in TiPb Store for $34.95. If you are looking for a case that is slim and dockable, then this case might be for you. Let’s see how it measures up after the break!
Design
If there is one thing that bothers me with cases, it’s the fact that most are not dockable. That issue goes away with Case-Mate’s Dockster brand case for iPhone 3G. The case is composed of a hard plastic frame that separates into two halves. The case is very strong and has openings for all of the usual suspects including camera, volume controls/ silent switch, headphone jack, sleep/wake button, front sensors and 30-pin connector on the bottom. The outside of the case is covered with a soft leather. This case also comes with a screen protector too, if you need one.
Daily Use
Like some people, my iPhone 3G is always with me. So, it has it’s fair share of battle scares from the last 7 months. I use a variety of cases for the iPhone, some good and others not so good. I was not sure what to expect from the Dockster. I can say I am quite pleased.
Placing the case on your iPhone could not be any easier; simply slide the top end on, then slide the bottom end. There are no buttons to snap, no clips to latch; they just slide together easily. Once the two pieces of the car are together, they are secure. I did not have to worry about one side slipping or falling off. The other benefit of this case is it adds a little extra grip too without become too think. The leather feels really nice in your hands and solid plastic frame adds piece of mind if it is dropped.
Docking the iPhone is easy, simply slip off the bottom end and yo are in business. I was very surprised at how easy it was to do.
Conclusion
Using this case daily, I really, really like it. The case is non-obtrusive and it looks good (to be honest, I would like it more if I had a black iPhone; the white kind of sticks out; Case-Mate, how about a white case?). There are not that many dockable case solutions on the market for the iPhone that are thin and attractive. This one really is a great solution!
Pros:
It is dockable!
Attractive leather finish
Sturdy plastic supportive frame
Thin
All ports are very easily accessible
Cons:
I really can’t find any pertinent negatives with this case
Chris writes: "Gratis can be a good business. How? Pretty simple: The minority of
customers who pay subsidize the majority who do not. Sometimes that's
two different sets of customers, as in the traditional media model: A
few advertisers pay for content so lots of consumers can get it cheap
or free..."
Back in late 2008, I wrote something very closely related to what Chris is saying, here: "To me, the bottom line is that most of what used to work just fine in a disconnected world of 'totally segregated consumers and producers' will simply not work in the future". In other words, the traditional media model will not work in Online Media, going forward - the mechanics are entirely different. And this is where Free or Freemium plays a crucial role - and it's a huge mission to figure out how this ecosystem will generate rivers of cash, not just data. And it will involve Collaboration between content companies and creators, telecoms, social networks, search engines and device makers.
Chris goes on: "With physical stuff, samples must be doled out sparingly -- there are
real costs to be paid. With bits, the free versions are too cheap to
meter and can be spread far and wide. That's why so many people
businesses (expensive!) are turning into software businesses (cheap!),
which is why your cranky tax accountant has morphed into free TurboTax
online, your stockbroker is now a trading Web site and your travel
agent is more likely a glorified search engine..."
Yes, indeed: this is why I think that the content business - starting with music - is turning into a software business, too - witness the explosion of app stores for mobile devices, and how much $$ people are paying for iPhone apps. Now imagine that content (starting with music) will be bundled into such apps, and people will perceive it as BUYING SOFTWARE or buying a cool app for their phone but in fact the content is included (yet paid for i.e. packaged). I think that if permitted by the rights-holders Pandora could easily sell a mobile device application that could include video, audio, feeds and images - I am dead certain people will pay for that. I will have a separate post on this sometime later this week.
Chris then hits the nail on the head: "Expect the shift toward open source software (which is free) and
Web-based productivity tools such as Google Docs (also free) to
accelerate".
Totally. Then, Chris warns (and I agree - that's why I am also hard at work on next-generation advertising models): "The standard business model for Web companies that don't actually have
a business model is advertising...Two problems have
emerged with that model: the price of online ads and click-through
rates. Facebook is an amazingly popular service, but it also an
amazingly ineffective advertising platform..."
And I also like his conclusion (and this is the first time that I see it spelled out like this, from Chris): "Does this mean that Free will retreat in a down economy? Probably not... "Free" has as much power over the
consumer psyche as ever. But it does mean that Free is not enough. It
also has to be matched with Paid. Just as King Gillette's free razors
only made business sense paired with expensive blades, so will today's
Web entrepreneurs have to not just invent products that people love,
but also those that they will pay for. Not all of the people or even
most of them -- free is still great marketing and bits are still too
cheap to meter -- but enough to pay the bills. Free may be the best
price, but it can't be the only one"
I call this challenge the '21st century content economics' challenge (yes... borrowed from Umair Hague's brilliant post on this topic), and it's the main topic for my work this year. If we can figure out how to generate many new revenue streams based on Feels Like Free access to content, then we can start modeling the business plans for the next 5 years. More soon! But what do you think? Comment below.
It's not an earthshaking surprise, but good news nevertheless, that advertising metrics show the share of Apple devices on the web continues to grow.
The latest indication is from Admob, a firm that tracks ad requests from more than 6,000 published sites in 160 foreign countries.
According to their latest report:
Worldwide requests from Apple devices grew 28% month over month to 1.2 billion in January. Building on its strong December, iPod Touch growth outpaced iPhone growth in top markets. The iPod Touch now represents 40% of Apple requests, up from 20% in September.
The Admob data confirms that the Apple iPhone (17 percent share) and iPod touch (12 percent share) are together the number one device for mobile internet useage, making 51% of all ad requests. This has to be good news for Apple, who is riding the recession along with the rest of the tech sector. Other highlights from the report indicate that Blackberrys have a 19 percent share while the G1 (HTC Touch) is the number 18 device in the U.S. with 0.9% share in December. The Google Android phone has a 3% OS share in the US, a good number for a product so new to the scene.
Apple may be rolling out even more phones to try and hold and extend past market gains. There are also continued rumors of a US $99.00 iPhone.
Microsoft is giving retail stores another try, even after closing its only store at the Metreon in 2001. It plans a "small number" of stores, but did not mention locations or size.
The company is hiring Walmart veteran David Porter -- an expert at negotiating deals between the movie industry and the big-box retailer's expansive DVD sales division. Porter most recently worked at Dreamworks Animation, managing worldwide product distribution for their games and movies.
The stores apparently will be geared for sales and education about Microsoft's product line. Porter said, "I am excited about helping consumers make more informed decisions about their PC and software purchases, and we'll share learnings [sic] from our stores with our existing retail and OEM partners that are critical to our success."
If Microsoft is aiming to compete with Apple on a retail level, they seem to be omitting a key part of Apple's retail success: Service. The Genius Bar is arguably the most crowded area in Apple retail stores, with every store booking appointments well in advance. A Microsoft service bar for both PCs and Zunes could be a very popular destination. If Microsoft stores can offer a competent service experience for the vast diversity of PC hardware, they might have something.
Microsoft has a 20,000 square-foot "Retail Experience Center" in Redmond, on the company's corporate campus. The Center is designed to show how Microsoft products can be used in every corner of a business' operations: from the loading dock to the reception desk. It's unclear if it will serve as the model for Microsoft's new retail initiative.
The service works much like YouSendIt, though rather than uploading a file, you point to an existing file on your iDisk. MobileMe then assigns a URL to that file, and offers to send an email to a recipient with the link. You can also assign an expiration date and password to the link.
MobileMe's sharing functionality is so far only available only through the iDisk web application, and not through the Finder. Tools like Dropbox and FileChute -- available on the desktop -- allow you to upload files and assign them a public link, but don't feature expiration dates or passwords (yet).
Apple offers a tutorial on how to use the new feature on its website.
Rollo & Grady Interview // Gerd Leonhard - Los Angeles Music Blog - Good read. Here are some of the best snippets:
R&G: Can the labels regain the trust of “people formerly known as consumers?” Gerd: They may not be able to, and this is the
Number One problem. I think it’s a very tough road. The only chance
they have – and that goes for everyone, not just the majors, but also
the indies – is to drastically open up, put their cards on the table
and start doing business like everybody else. This means being
transparent, sharing, putting deals on the table and making them
public. They need to create real value rather than pretend to do so.
R&G: You’ve talked about how the record industry should adopt Twitter. Can you elaborate? Gerd:Twitter is a mechanism of micro
communication, like RSS feeds. Therefore, it becomes something that is
completely owned by the people who are doing it, rather than by the
people who are making or receiving it. It’s a completely viable
mechanism that is cost-neutral, at least to us. It becomes a very
powerful mechanism for peer response and viral connections. That is the
principle of what music is all about. It’s word of mouth, connecting,
forwarding and sharing. A musical version of Twitter would be a
goldmine. It already exists to some degree in blip.fm,
but the music industry should use that mechanism to broadcast directly
to fans. They’re starting to do that, but the problem is that many
music companies perceive their primary mission as gatekeeper for the
artists rather than getting the music out. That is a big problem today,
when you’re in an economy where everybody wants a snack before buying a
sandwich.
R&G: What other technologies do you think are necessary for the do-it-yourself artists and managers of the new music world? Gerd: Widgets and syndication have made YouTube the
world’s leader in video. 60% of videos are not played on YouTube.com
but on blogs and other people’s sites. Music has completely overlooked
that very powerful tool. That is this whole idea of syndication –
getting people to transmit music to each other and then reaping the
attention on the other end.
R&G: Are you saying they need to recognize any revenue stream they can generate from their content? Sell CDs, subscriptions, etc.? Gerd: The flat rate is the next CD. Its simple
mathematics. If you charge or indirectly earn one dollar from each user
of a network, that dollar can be ad-supported. It can be supported by
bundling, so the user won’t feel it, so to speak. If you look at the
total number of people who are active on digital networks, which is
somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 ½ billion people, they’re not all
going to pay a dollar because they’re in different countries. But the
money that comes in from such a flat rate is humongous.
Much buzz today surrounds the launch of video downloads on its YouTube service, which includes the ability for its content partners (including labels) to charge for those downloads.
Users will pay using Google’s own Google Checkout system, with the content owner setting the prices - $0.99 is a popular price so far, according to TechCrunch. There doesn’t appear to be any DRM involved, which may put labels off. However, it’s the latest attempt by YouTube to enable its content partners to make money from the service, following the introduction of advertising and click-through links to Amazon and iTunes.
It may be no co-incidence that Sony Music Entertainment has apparently become the first major label to re-sign with YouTube, although details of the deal’s finer points are predictably scarce.
It’ll come as no surprise that the major negotiation points were an upfront payment from YouTube to Sony, the size of the minimum payment per play of its videos on the site, and the exact revenue share from related advertising. Sony has more than 93,000 subscribers to its YouTube channel (plus more than 2.3 million views). Sony’s decision to re-sign contrasts with Warner Music Group’s recent decision to pull its videos from YouTube.
CD Baby has shared its 2008 performance figures (via TechDirt) and they show modest to good growth. CD sales increased 2% to 1,013,478 units while digital download revenue rose 45% to $25.4 million (that's wholesale, not retail).
Proving that it matters for hits as well as niches, iTunes accounted for 82.3% of CD Baby's digital download revenue (a slight drop from 85.6% in 2007).
How valuable is the long tail? To CD Baby, which aggregates the slow-moving and unpopular, there is certainly value in the long tail. It takes a cut from each sale. But at the artist level it's a different story. The average CD Baby payout was $228 in 2008. The average digital album generated wholesale revenue of only $131. That's $10.91 per month.
To put things in perspective, Lil Wayne sold more CDs than did CD Baby in 2008. The $35 million (retail) in download revenue (not all of which was earned through U.S. stores) generated by 194,000 albums and 2,233,891 individual tracks equals roughly 2.2% of 2008 U.S. digital download revenue.
Finally, here is the video and audio version of my presentation at MidemNet 2009, in Cannes France. I put a ton of work into this presentation and, well, honestly... I think it's one of the best I have ever done on this topic. Hope you enjoy it - and please comment, below, and / or spread the word! Thanks to the Midem organization for providing the DVD with this video.
The topics: why the
music industry needs to license the Internet just like it has licensed
Radio (i.e. with a collective license), why criminalizing the users
& fans will not work - and why those efforts should be re-directed to the creation of a new 'Music 2.0' ecosystem that actually produces growing revenues,
where those new revenues will come from, and how the music flat rate -
aka music like water - would work. See my previous blog post for more details and the PDF of this presentation. The MidemNet blog is here. My free book, Music 2.0, is here, btw;)
• The Fray's self-titled tops the album chart with sales of 179,000. Sales for the week totaled 7.32 million units, a 13.1% decrease over the same week in 2008. (Billboard.biz)
• Sirius XM Radio Inc is reportedly talking to Liberty Media as well as EchoStar, both possible acquirers of the troubled satellite radio company. Sirius XM shares have fallen on news it may file for bankruptcy protection to deal with its debt. (MarketWatch)
• According to a Ruckus employee, the shuttered service's main competitors were free, legal services like YouTube and Pandora. Then again, the service itself was a problem. Said the University of Chicago's CIO, "They were sort of living as if the market was two or three years ago, but the market has moved on." (Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Full transcript of Warner Music Group's Feb. 5th earnings call. (Seeking Alpha)
• Former IFPI chairman and EMI executive Per Eirik Johansen on copyright and file-sharing: "The message of that campaign is that there is a reason why we have copyright, and I agree. But the main thing is that a whole generation already violates copyright, and the only thing we can do now is find better solutions." (TorrentFreak)
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If there is one thing that bothers me with cases, it’s the fact that most are not dockable. That issue goes away with Case-Mate’s Dockster brand case for iPhone 3G. The case is composed of a hard plastic frame that separates into two halves. The case is very strong and has openings for all of the usual suspects including camera, volume controls/ silent switch, headphone jack, sleep/wake button, front sensors and 30-pin connector on the bottom. The outside of the case is covered with a soft leather. This case also comes with a screen protector too, if you need one.
Like some people, my iPhone 3G is always with me. So, it has it’s fair share of battle scares from the last 7 months. I use a variety of cases for the iPhone, some good and others not so good. I was not sure what to expect from the Dockster. I can say I am quite pleased.
It's not an earthshaking surprise, but good news nevertheless, that advertising metrics show the share of Apple devices on the web continues to grow.
Microsoft is 
