content delivery
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Netflix coming to Canada this fall
Netflix has just announced it'll be taking its first tentative step abroad with a rollout of its video streaming service in Canada. Specifics are predictably light at the present moment, but interested Canucks can sign up now to be informed as soon as those details drop. So Canada in the fall... and the UK in winter, perhaps? We can only hope. [Thanks, Chris D.]
Amazon Kindle moves to App Store's 70/30 revenue split
Most of the rumors coming out about next week's event say that there'll be a tablet with a lot of similarities to the popular Amazon Kindle device, but even before Apple takes the stage, Amazon is taking one of the new ideas for its own. The online retail powerhouse announced that it is adapting a payment model for content providers that's very similar to the App Store, with a 70/30 split on pay sharing. There are a few limitations (there's still a cost for delivery, and the publisher has to conform to a number of price, feature, and location standards), but essentially, Amazon is taking the exact same model that has worked so well for both Apple and its development partners, and bringing it to the Kindle platform. The timing is interesting -- with Apple just about to release what many expect to be a Kindle competitor, you have to wonder what Jeff Bezos is thinking. You have to wonder what Apple will do, too: while there are certainly all kinds of other things the theoretical tablet can do, it's possible that, if they are as close as some people think, Apple and Amazon will end up competing over content delivery, and one or the other may have to change its royalty offerings in order to attract more premium content. That's all a ways down the line, of course -- first, Apple needs to announce the tablet, and then we have to see what happens in terms of releasing content for it. But there's no question Amazon and other companies are watching Apple's plans in the App Store, and it'll be interesting to see what comes next.
