Mandelblog

You would have to be living in Timbuk2 to not know that Apple launched a completely revamped version of Apple TV.  And let’s be honest, it is pretty impressive.  It streams from Netflix, from your home computer and from YouTube.  It streams in glorious HD (although only 720P) and the interface that was unveiled today was stunning.  If you are anything like me, you waited for the Apple Store to get back up and running to place your order in early.  I’m starting with one.  “Starting with.”

But if you want to be able to use that beautiful “hockey puck” of a box on the day it arrives, you should order your HDMI cable now.  Apple TV doesn’t come with an HDMI cable and to get all of that HD streaming goodness form Apple you are going to need a way to connect that box to to your TV.

Luckily you can get a very reasonably priced HDMI cable from Amazon for $6.99 (for a 2 meter version) or $7.99 (for a 3 meter version).

Or you can do what my friend Dave Pell plans to do.  Just use the HDMI cable from your BluRay player.  You won’t be needing it anymore.

Amazon 2 Meter HDMI Cable

Amazon 3 Meter HDMI Cable

For those of you that haven’t seen it yet, Netflix today reported record subscriber growth and earnings for the second quarter of 2010.  Netflix even upped its full year earngings, revenue and subscriber guidance for the year.

The company now has 15 million subscribers – which is a 42% gain from a year ago.  You would think that Wall Street would reward these kind of results.  But Netflix was punished – and the market is right about this.

You see, despite the fact that people are using Netflix more and more, the company is making less per monthly subscriber.  A lot less. Netflix’s average monthly subscriber bill last quarter was $12.29.  This is a decline of a dollar from $13.29 a year ago.

The clear reason for this is Netflix’s decline is that more and more Netflix users are starting to stream  movies with Netflix’s streaming service rather than watching movies on DVD.  Because Netflix offers unlimited streaming with even its most inexpensive plan (its $8.99 1-DVD a month plan) more and more of its subscribers are moving to cheaper plans and, as a result, paying less for the service.

The Solution: For starters, Netflix really needs to consider some a la carte pricing options.  These are thriving with Pay-Per-View offered by the satellite and cable companies.  In addition, Netflix will need to raise the price for its most inexpensive options if those are going to continue to include unlimited streaming.  Otherwise, the company will continue to see downward pressure on its average monthly subscriber bill – and on its stock price.

The New York Times reports today that Amazon’s Kindle book sales exceeded hardcover sales for the last 3 months.  In fact, for every 100 hardcover books sold, 143 Kindle books were sold.

But there were a number of other interesting facts in the story including the following:

• For the last 4 weeks it was 180 Kindle book sales for every 100 hardcover book sales – suggesting that the shift to Kindle books is accelerating.
• These figures do not include over 1 million free books made available on the Kindle.
• These numbers don’t in any way address paperback sales.
• Kindle sales growth tripled when Amazon lowered the price of the standard Kindle from $259 to $189 last month.

Analysis:

1. With hardcover books usually costing double the paperback version, we assume more paperback books are usually sold that hardcover books.  So in the meantime, more of the “classic” versions of books are sold.
2. What is really confusing to Mandelblog is why publishers force consumers to make a choice between the Kindle edition and the physical version.  If I am willing to pay $30 for a hardcover book I should be able to get a Kindle version for free.  By forcing consumers to choose, the publishers are losing sales.

Amazon Says E-Books Now Top Hardcover Sales (New York Times)

Amazon Kindle

It all started in Hollywood.  As you can see, Brian Stolte spent most of his time in Hollywood regularly hobnobbing with industry heavyweights like Terry Semel and Steven Spielberg.  read more »