So what’s new in tech? Well, nothing much these days really.
Tech has come to a grinding halt on three fronts for me. The halt though, while extremely boring, is also saving me a lot of money. What’s boring is not worth buying.
Apple
I’ll start with Apple, who of course were everyone’s favourite company just a few short years ago. So cool were Apple, that people used to queue up for days in rain, snow and ice, just so they could be first to donate huge wads of cash to the Apple god of tech.
Today, however, where are the queues of Apple tech heads with fat wallets of cash? Like me, people have learnt the lesson. To reinforce the lesson, I saw a new iPhone this week in a store, and when I looked at it, it hardly differed from my three-year-old iPhone. My old phone works perfectly well, and apart from a new bit of chassis candy, the new and very expensive iPhone was exactly the same as mine. Well, except the new one didn’t have a plug for my earphones. Yes Apple, take away and try to charge me more. Do you think I’m that stupid?
Sorry Apple, I am not that dumb.
Staying with Apple, my Macbook Pro is getting on a bit now – well in techie years that is. But when I looked at possibly buying a new one online at the Apple Store, I couldn’t help but notice that there was hardly a shred of difference between my current Macbook Pro, and the new one on offer. Well except, again, a lack of holes to plug in the devices I use. Um, like my iPhone? WTF Apple?
Sure, there are probably a few new, faster bits inside, but who cares about all that nonsense. Mine works, so again, sorry Apple, I’m not that stupid. I’ll keep my money thanks.
The next tech stuck in the mud is Twitter. Oh Twitter how I love you, but dear me, you really are a very slow learner, and you are proving to be the real dunce of the techie class.
Six years ago the warning flashed in huge red letters for Twitter.
NEW TWITTER USERS GET CONFUSED AND BORED! THEN LEAVE. DO SOMETHING!
Sadly, Twitter ignored this warning, or perhaps in fairness, tried, but still had no clue as to how to change Twitter to become a new user-friendly platform. Like, it’s not rocket science, as every other social media platform has worked out how to be nice to new users, and keep them.
Okay Twitter, you have replaced the eggs with an odd little bubble human thingie. I’m sure that’ll help overcome all the confusion for new users.
Twitter is fantastic, but only if you spend a year learning how to use it. People don’t have time to waste, and Twitter still wastes new user’s time.
Nope, there’s nothing new at Twitter.
Ebooks
During the early years of self-publishing from 2010 to 2013, I had a great time publishing ebooks. Not only publishing but earning a nice side income as well. Then, though, things started to slow down.
Over the last year or so, the slowdown has started to almost turn into a grinding halt. Sure, everyone knows about Kindle, but unfortunately, this is the cause of the problem.
While Amazon has been hugely successful, it has managed to decimate most competition in the ebook market, and now hold what is practically a monopoly on ebooks. This has led to a lack of innovation, which is clearly demonstrated by the dramatic fall in sales of e-reading devices, including the Kindle.
Ebooks are tech, and without new features, they are just text on a screen. Ho hum. How uncool is black and white?
This is the result of Amazon’s ebook success, and with it, the destruction of any viable competition. And with no competition, there is no innovation. Only stagnation. And that is boring. Ebooks are boring.
Tech is getting oh so boring.
I’ll stop here because I’m bored. How about you?
I was looking to comment but wanted to check the date of this post first. It was too hard to find so I stopped looking. ; )
You mentioned what sounds like your book sales (?) coming to a grinding halt (at least compared to the “old days”) and then jumped over to Amazon’s dominance with the Kindle reader seeming to be attributed with being the cause.
As a reader — on an iPad — I don’t see that as being the case myself.
I started reading again (about four books every week or two) in iBooks. Amazon later began offering sale prices and discounts more often and I shifted to the Kindle reader on my iPad (still).
My “grinding halt” came when publishers ended their spat with Amazon and overnight, everyone and their brother who had a decent book out started their “we’re professionals so we’re justified” price gouging. At that point, I had to look at book series with as many as six separate titles contained within them as a budget item. Meaning, if “cool author so-and-so” offers a six book series with a per book price of $23 each, I”m expected to like them so much I’d pay $132 just to get to the end and find out how things resolved. You better be the most talented author in the world with the most fantastic, gripping and never-before-seen ideas and characters in the history of writing if you think that will be the case. It’s just not-gonna-happen.
I can see how an early adopter and device devotee of other devices might be stubborn and resist swapping (and that has to be a minority of all readers) for a bit but I think ereader sales have fallen because you can buy an entry level tablet for the same price and not only read books on it but use it for other things (cat videos, social media).
I think the problem now is the sheer number of books and how to get them in front of people. For many authors, the work/knowledge side of that just isn’t something that fits for them.
Using your blog as an example: it’s fun and informative reading — and i do see your ads on the pages. But I learn nothing about your books if I don’t click an ad and go to Amazon or what have you for the description. So, no doubt, your SEO is great for your blog as it tags authors and keeps your name up. I’m sure the ads don’t hurt (but then they’re also a pre-sale expense) but then I have to actually click them and it isn’t something I do often. I know it’ the advice of the day to pump your SEO, have a blog over aa book site, etc. but blog reading of postings that don’t touch the author’s work have never (not once) caused me to go look up their books.
I’d walk away from here thinking you’re an English techer who has dabbled a little in books and that doesn’t motivate me at all o rush and grab a few of them. And I have already purchased a few of your books and read them. I think most readers want to connect to their liked authors–not just see their name in print.
I’d be intersted to her your take on it all.
Thanks for your comment David. My take? Well, one adapts as things change, so I’m an adapter. Online ebook retailers and self publishing services change their ways more often than I have hot dinners. So it pays not to be fixed in one’s thinking and approach.
I was drawn by the the last lines of your comment though. As I understand it, you are not motivated to investigate my books, but in the same breath you say you have read some. But you would like to connect with me.
I have two blogs and a website, all with contact details, 3 Twitter accounts plus Facebook and a number of other social media accounts, so I think I’m connectable, and I always respond. :))
You are right about readers wanting to know authors better, but I think I try harder than most to do exactly that.
Lol–pardon my typos. My glasses are somewhere and technology is really wearying without them.
My glasses fail me too, David. But thank goodness for the ‘techie’ zoom function on my laptop and iPad!
Maybe it’s not a bad thing that your 4-year-old devices still work and meet your needs! It’s just the natural product life cycle. Of course, you’re the seller, not the consumer, on Amazon. So it’s maturation isn’t as useful since you were a first mover beneficiary.
Nailed it!