Scott Berry

http://www.scottjberry.com

52 Comments

    • Akamai: Why Charge More for Streaming Video Delivery vs. HTTP Delivery? [view article]
      Everyone is missing the obvious, here. Akamai's Marketing department has clearly failed in their messaging.

      Akamai is not selling streaming delivery for *more*, they are offering a *discount on HTTP*. That would make the question "why is Akamai the only CDN that discounts downloads?" :-)       Oct 09 10:33 AM
    • Real Networks New DVD Ripper: Are You for Real? [view article]
      Excuse me, "rocket surgery"? :-)

      Otherwise a nice piece, Mathew. I agree totally, this is one of the most lame-grained schemes I've ever seen. Yet another reason my computers have all remained "unReal" for years.       Sep 09 09:19 AM
    • DivX Breaks Ground in Supporting Flash Video [view article]
      Yes, this is correct. The Connected box is functionally not much more than a DivX codec paired with a WiFi card.

      The server software on the PC converts everything (including photos and music, plus your stored video) into a DivX encoded stream which is sent to the client box. Because the PC does the heavy lifting, it's infinitely flexible and evolvable.

      Brilliant idea, really, especially if they're successful in getting Connected embedded directly into TVs and DVRs.       Sep 08 09:11 AM
    • Comcast Limits User Downloads: Wrong Solution [view article]
      @Julio -- That's true in the abstract, though most offer mainly consumer and business (the latter little more than bribery to run a server).

      What I'd like to see is much more granularity, and in particular some incentives to "trade up". If I have a base 2 Mb/s service, where's the sales pitch to go to 5 or 10 or 20 or 50 Mb/s? If they're truly in the access business that's the model I'd expect.       Sep 04 02:56 PM
    • Does Apple's iPhone Increase Browsing? [view article]
      Actually, the title is what set me off: "Does the iPhone Increase Browsing?" That sure implies causality to me.

      After re-reading, I agree that the article itself is neutral. Mea culpa for being too quick on the trigger.

      @jimmx, no, that's not what I meant. I believe that people who already did a lot of browsing (on any platform) were more likely to be early adopter types, which is the same type who would naturally be attracted to the iPhone in the first place.

      I believe this is likely to be a much stronger contributor to increased browsing than people who bought an iPhone, all of a sudden "discovered" they could surf the internet better, and then decided to do it more.       Sep 04 11:57 AM
    • Fiber To the Home: Will They Ever Learn? [view article]
      When our local telecableco cabal is ready to offer the services that require that kinds of bandwidth, they'll be more than happy to provide the bandwidth. They want to sell us the pipe and every bit that goes over it as well.

      If they give us the bandwidth first, they're afraid we'll find a way to use it that cuts them out of any additional revenue stream. And they're right.

      Monopolies suck.       Sep 04 10:41 AM
    • Comcast Limits User Downloads: Wrong Solution [view article]
      Careful. QoS is nothing more than a way to control what content you can receive, masquerading as "improved performance".

      Higher bandwidth/speed is cheaper to provide (I'm talking infrastructure, here) than QoS. Always has been.       Sep 04 10:33 AM
    • 7 Reasons I Switched to Google's Chrome [view article]
      You should have spent as much time researching Firefox as you did Chrome, since basically all of the functionality (and way more) has been available via extensions for some time.

      And I echo others about the browser vs. OS. When Chrome can manage all my peripherals and print jobs, then we'll talk.       Sep 04 09:18 AM
    • Does Apple's iPhone Increase Browsing? [view article]
      This post, like so many others, suffers from the 3 C's: Confusing Correlation with Causality. It is equally possible (and a simpler explanation) that people who browse the internet a lot are drawn to the iPhone, not that the iPhone causes additional browsing.

      In fact, given the sales ramp of the iPhone, it would be amazing NOT to see a rapid rise in mobile internet browsing. For a fuller explanation, see scottjberry.com/2008/0.../ .       Sep 04 09:13 AM
    • Happy Customers Don't Change Their Web Browsers [view article]
      I agree with you, and violently disagree with Maney. People *do* customize and personalize their browsers. My Firefox contains login and password info in the cache for dozens of sites, and I also have a favorite theme/skin and 10-12 extentions that I refuse to live without--many of which perform functions only now being touted in Chrome or IE8. Changing would be a big hassle and would thus require a compelling reason. Chrome doesn't qualify. Sep 04 09:07 AM
    • Kindle + College Textbooks = A Huge Opportunity for Amazon [view article]
      @five, read my comment again. Are you saying kids will pay $35 more per book (net) using a Kindle, but that's OK because they'll make it up on volume? Aug 28 08:42 AM
    • Advice for Amazon on How to Get Serious About the Kindle [view article]
      Bzzzt! Wrong answer, Michael.

      Kindle's problem isn't the business model, it's the product concept, which just isn't compelling enough. Once it begins to fundamentally change the reading experience (instead of simply replacing paper), it'll catch on.

      In any case, you're assuming Amazon's making its money on the ebooks. If that business is so good, then they could simply give away the Kindles.

      Can you imagine how unprofitable Apple would be if it made no margin on iPods but counted on iTunes sales to make money?

      Back to square one.       Aug 27 12:10 PM
    • 'Buy, But Sell' - What Are Analysts Thinking? [view article]
      Pretty clear to me. Stock has come down, so it has long-term appreciation potential. But short term it's more likely to fall some more than rise, so don't pull the trigger yet.

      Note also the way fund managers think: Having money in a stock you think will be flat for some period of time is the same as losing money, when there are other opportunities out there for upside.
      Aug 26 10:49 AM
    • NBC's Olympics Web Strategy Came Out a Loser [view article]
      My biggest complaint was that the website had extremely poor usability. It wasn't just the lack of video. It often took me multiple searches down blind alleys and nearly random clicking just to figure out a clip wasn't there in the first place. Not to mention how noisy the page impressions were. Yecch.

      I will say that Silverlight worked very well for me (once I gave up on trying to bypass it and just gave in). The picture was crystal clear with no stuttering.       Aug 26 10:43 AM
    • Kindle + College Textbooks = A Huge Opportunity for Amazon [view article]
      The logic seems a bit flawed here.

      Student buys a $150 book, sells used for maybe $75. Net $75 (with some risk they can't sell it, admittedly). Or student buys a discounted ebook (let's say $110, to be charitable). Net $110. That doesn't include the cost of the Kindle device. Where's the incentive for the student?

      So e-textbooks would have to be much more sharply discounted for this to work. But the price of textbooks isn't driven by production/distributio... it's driven by information value and "lock in". Where's the incentive for the publisher? What are typical discounts currently on electronic versions of textbooks?

      Curing the backache factor will certainly help, though I can't recall lugging my engineering texts around that much. (BTW, do students still highlight textbooks?).

      I certainly see some daylight for the Kindle here, but the case has to be a bit better. We'll see.       Aug 26 10:18 AM
Loading...
Symbols:
Authors:
Quick Links:
Contribute an Article Become a Seeking Alpha Contributor

Transcripts

More Transcripts»