Free Content Is Over Soon

The days of reading contents free online are numbered.  By contents I mean valuable contents like the ones here.

Apple's tablet is going to make payments so simple and so much fun that you actually feel like you owe it to yourself to pay via Apple's tablet.  Think Apple's iPhone apps.  Each app is either free or mostly under $10 and people are paying them like as if they are free when in fact they add up quickly.  Before month end, iTunes is sending you a $100 statement.  Surprise.

People are so used to getting quality contents free on the Web and print media have been caught much like the music industry but unlike the music industry, they actually put their contents on the web and charge nothing hoping that the advertising model, like network TV, would sustain or even turn a profit for the business.  Alas, nobody from the old print media has any success in raking in the dough.  Print is either dead or on life support.  Now comes Jobs, the guy who can do no wrong.  If the Web puts print on life support, the tablet is the life line.

What does Google fit into this picture?  Google should be afraid, very afraid.  Just like the iPhone apps, it has the potential to totally bypass search, the bread and butter of Google's ad driven business model, that's why Google needs to get into the smartphone business to control how content is delivered.  While Apple is on iPhone 3GS, the second iteration of its game changing device, and ready to roll out the tablet, Google just belatedly shipped its Nexus One.  With the tablet, the computing battle field is pushed one step further into the handheld and away from the desktop.  Google doesn't have the so-called first mover advantage but it never had even with search.  It would be interesting to see how Google, print and other businesses are going to adopt and exploit the potential of this device.