Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Thu, 6 Sep 2012 13:13:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120906/12200520304/disruption-starts-with-foot-door-amazons-new-data-plan-is-limited-potentially-revolutionary.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120906/12200520304/disruption-starts-with-foot-door-amazons-new-data-plan-is-limited-potentially-revolutionary.shtml 4G LTE mobile data plan on the Kindle Fire HD. It's $49.99 for the year, though it's limited to just 250MB per month -- which is tiny. Amazon has included mobile data before in its Kindles, but those were strictly for books (which don't take up that much data). As they go further into the fully functional tablet world, this starts to become more interesting. That's because mobile data continues to be something of a racket, with just a few national providers: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint (and there are limitations there). The pricing offered by those guys always seems to border on collusion (amazing how closely they track each other's pricing changes) and is always focused on keeping the prices very high.

Amazon's offer here is a way to tiptoe into that pool with something of an alternative. Yes, they're just piggybacking on someone else's network via some sort of MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) agreement, so you're still really using one of the national carriers' networks. But from a consumer standpoint, it is offering something of an alternative for mobile data, at much more reasonable prices (though, obviously, the super low caps match that super low pricing). That, alone, doesn't revolutionize mobile data pricing, but it does seem like a way for Amazon to get its foot in the door and expand over time. Amazon has a long history of figuring out ways to do things in a consumer-friendly manner, even if it means undercutting others to do so (which has made it a few enemies). In the presentation itself, Jeff Bezos noted that they're focused on making money elsewhere -- basically as people buy things via the device -- and thus the company has tremendous incentive to keep the prices of the devices and the service quite low. And that has the potential to be quite disruptive.

In some ways, I look at it as similar (in a very different context) to Google's fiber effort in Kansas City. In both cases, you have companies sort of dipping their toes in the water of ancillary markets that make their primary markets more valuable. They're very limited at this time, and many people may brush them off as being useless. But that's what always happens with The Innovator's Dilemma. Offer something simple and small, and the legacy players brush it off as too small or too limited to matter. But keep improving on that, and you undercut legacy providers without them fully realizing what's happening -- often because you're using your tiny and "weak" efforts there to actually enhance your primary market, where the traditional players have no presence.

Lots of people are reasonably mocking the 250MB limit. It is kinda useless. But, look at it as a wedge, and the beginning of the climb up the innovation slope, making Amazon's core business more valuable... and things could actually get quite interesting.

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]]> need-pressure-from-somewhere http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120906/12200520304 Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:12:00 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111227/15534717208/how-firefly-fans-made-one-universitys-campus-safe-free-speech.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111227/15534717208/how-firefly-fans-made-one-universitys-campus-safe-free-speech.shtml Firefly, with a picture of Nathan Fillion, the actor who played the character who spoke the line. The quote was one about fairness, but the campus police interpreted it as a threat, took it down, and threatened the professor. In response, Miller put up a second poster, mocking the takedown of the first poster: Once again, the university police got involved, taking down the poster and claiming that it "depicts violence and mentions violence and death." And saying that the "campus threat assessment team" had determined that the poster would "cause a material and/or substantial disruption of school activities and/or be constituted as a threat." That seems like an interesting (i.e., "wrong") interpretation of the First Amendment (remember, this is a state school), and the group FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) got involved, sending a letter on behalf of Miller. Amazingly, the University doubled down on this form of censorship, standing by the original takedowns.

We hadn't followed the story since then, but thanks to JJ for passing along that FIRE recently put up a video detailing the full story, with an appearance by Neil Gaiman, whose tweets about the story first alerted us (and, as it turns out, tons of others) to the story. As he notes, you should never, ever upset science fiction fans who feel their favorite show has been cancelled in an untimely way.

Of course, as FIRE's director notes, this story ended up with the University backing down, but only because of the widespread outrage from Firefly fans. It's too bad that these kinds of issues often only get attention when they have a hook like that. Hopefully more people recognize that free speech issues are free speech issues even if they don't involve a particular TV show...

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]]> that-coat-is-brown http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111227/15534717208 Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:19:20 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080310/005319484.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080310/005319484.shtml and set them on fire on their bed (along with some kerosene to help flame the fire).

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]]> now-that's-fury http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080310/005319484 Wed, 7 Nov 2007 23:54:42 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071106/180332.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071106/180332.shtml few stories now about Verizon FiOS (its fiber optic broadband offering) installs that resulted in fires and damaged properties. While Verizon's PR folks have focused an awful lot of effort on convincing reporters that where there's smoke there isn't necessarily fire, perhaps the company should put a few more resources towards both preventing fires and fixing things up for those whose property was destroyed by install-related fires. Broadband Reports points us to yet another FiOS-related fire (which the reporter at Network World is now calling FiOS: Fire is Our Speciality), where Verizon promised to help the family impacted by paying for their living expenses and reimbursing them for destroyed property. The only problem? That bill came to $58,000, and Verizon only wants to pay $1,800 of it. The family has now decided to take the matter to court. You would think, given the negative publicity over the previous fires, that Verizon would know to pay up and apologize, rather than try to stiff the folks whose house they set on fire.

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]]> maybe-slow-down-on-the-installs? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20071106/180332 Fri, 7 Sep 2007 04:27:31 PDT Carlo Longino http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070906/113055.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070906/113055.shtml back and forth with a writer over whether or not one of their technicians actually started a fire at a customer's house when installing its FiOS service. The fire department says there was a fire, but Verizon denies that. In any case, the damage the installation caused was certainly significant, even if Verizon so generously paid for repairs. A month later, and look what's happened (again): a Verizon FiOS installer once again clipped an electrical wire, resulting in $2,650 worth of damage and a smoking house. Verizon's PR people are more than welcome to (again) argue about whether or not the smoke means there was fire, but regardless of their definition, these sorts of stories continue to pile up.

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]]> yes,-again http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20070906/113055