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How The iPhone Will (And Already Has) Changed Higher Education and Entertainment!
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D.
As Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented the new iPhone yesterday in San Francisco, I had a "eureka moment" where the impact of the iPhone has really impacted two of my favorite things higher education and entertainment. For the purposes of being contrarian I will deliberately start with the field of entertainment.
Despite the fact that there is a real fight between Apple and NBC, the iPhone and the iPod Touch have enabled television viewers to view NBC, MSNBC, and USA Networks programming for free. NBC willingly gave up $15 million dollars in iTunes revenues from Apple because they wanted variable pricing from Apple which insisted on the old $1.99 download model (Apple, 2008; NBC, 2008). Ironically, Apple has begun offering variable pricing to the movie industry now, so maybe the two companies should mend fences for the sake of consumers. For NBC, this is really a lose-lose proposition because NBC and Fox just started the HULU network online to distribute their television and cable shows online (Apple, 2008; Hulu, 2008; Fox, 2008; NBC, 2008; Newscorp, 2008). NBC should be following the example of Newscorp owned Fox which has been shrewd in selling downloads on iTunes, streaming content on Newscorp owned MySpace, and streaming on Hulu. Fox is not going to give up double digit millions of dollars when it has the most popular social network based on users, a popular Fox site and the HULU site.
The iPhone changed the debate in favor of Apple because even iPodTouch owners can view NBC content for free rather than downloading. NBC may have created more iPhone and iPodTouch viewers who can view NBC content and save money during tough economic times. The fact that many young viewers of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann are becoming very politically active and are tech savvy has benefited the Obama Campaign which has relied heavily on podcasts, blogs, YouTube and the Internet to campaign and to raise record campaign donations from ordinary Americans. The fact that the new iPhone will operate on AT&T's 3G network which will make the device a fully functional convergence device with less problems than its predecessor which operated on the notoriously slow EDGE network.
The iPhone and competing devices will make it possible for new entertainment content that can air on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and the Zune Marketplace. Smaller content creators now have outlets for their program offerings, and major networks can also air programming on the third screen first and wait for programs to get popular before airing them on USA, MSNBC or NBC. The iPhone and the iPod have been critical to transforming the political process and the entertainment business from a revenue generating and a pure entertainment perspective.
However, the iPhone and the iPodTouch has already impacted the biggest entertainment business of them all: higher education. If higher education can extend the best parts of its NCAA model to the academic side, it will create a business that will rival the major networks, publishers, and music content providers. Furthermore, this organization would also be a major online player too, since most of the people from the tech world have higher edudational roots. The iPhone has already impacted the IT departments of many universities such as Duke, Colgate, and Stanford where the voracious appetites of iPhone users have placed new pressures on their networks. Now that the iPhone is $199 and $299 and the iPodTouch works via WiFi, every university will have to brace themselves for the iPhone and iPodTouch onslaught that will be hitting universities this summer and this fall. Research indicates that iPhone users are large users of online data. Do not be surprised when many college IT departments adopt the iPhone platform and the iPhone itself now that the iPhone SDK has opened up the phone to developers who will quickly improve this device through software. This will amount to an upgraded phone every month for those who want to buy.
Finally, the most important reason that higher education will change higher education is the delivery of content. Apple delivers more digital content than anyone in the world, and the company has created a future gold mine with its free podcasts which inevitably will be branded with ads from NCAA corporate sponsors on the academic side. The day will come when Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon will all benefit from residuals of ads placed strategically within podcasts. Apple's new iTunesU has been extremely successful in its first full year of operation. The fact that major schools such as Duke, Stanford, MIT, and others are distributing their content through iTunes speaks volumes of the future of higher education through time shifting. The distance learning industry will also be forced to changed now that students can carry their class in their pocket and retrieve their classes anytime, anyplace and anywhere. The fact that high profile schools like Duke have already bought iPods for their students and now many universities are looking to the same for the iPhone at a cheaper price on a better network with GPS and software updates makes the iPhone an irresistible device for higher education. Now, if I can really convince my colleagues in higher education on the importance of utilizing these tools and making their presentations more interactive we could help stabilize education costs. Did you hear that sucking sound? That is the sound of big media publishers screaming when colleges begin to create their own digital publishing outlets that will enable professors to teach and publish online simultaneously. Administrators are going to have problems with the whole tenure process since they love hiring adjuncts on the cheap! The real question becomes this: what will they do when the first academic rockstar professors are born! Even if they win the intellectual property war, which is not a given, many professors will simply jump ship and sign better deals with universities because of the new crop of intellectual property attorneys. Stay tuned because I hear a storm coming!
Now that's edutainment!
As Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented the new iPhone yesterday in San Francisco, I had a "eureka moment" where the impact of the iPhone has really impacted two of my favorite things higher education and entertainment. For the purposes of being contrarian I will deliberately start with the field of entertainment.
Despite the fact that there is a real fight between Apple and NBC, the iPhone and the iPod Touch have enabled television viewers to view NBC, MSNBC, and USA Networks programming for free. NBC willingly gave up $15 million dollars in iTunes revenues from Apple because they wanted variable pricing from Apple which insisted on the old $1.99 download model (Apple, 2008; NBC, 2008). Ironically, Apple has begun offering variable pricing to the movie industry now, so maybe the two companies should mend fences for the sake of consumers. For NBC, this is really a lose-lose proposition because NBC and Fox just started the HULU network online to distribute their television and cable shows online (Apple, 2008; Hulu, 2008; Fox, 2008; NBC, 2008; Newscorp, 2008). NBC should be following the example of Newscorp owned Fox which has been shrewd in selling downloads on iTunes, streaming content on Newscorp owned MySpace, and streaming on Hulu. Fox is not going to give up double digit millions of dollars when it has the most popular social network based on users, a popular Fox site and the HULU site.
The iPhone changed the debate in favor of Apple because even iPodTouch owners can view NBC content for free rather than downloading. NBC may have created more iPhone and iPodTouch viewers who can view NBC content and save money during tough economic times. The fact that many young viewers of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann are becoming very politically active and are tech savvy has benefited the Obama Campaign which has relied heavily on podcasts, blogs, YouTube and the Internet to campaign and to raise record campaign donations from ordinary Americans. The fact that the new iPhone will operate on AT&T's 3G network which will make the device a fully functional convergence device with less problems than its predecessor which operated on the notoriously slow EDGE network.
The iPhone and competing devices will make it possible for new entertainment content that can air on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and the Zune Marketplace. Smaller content creators now have outlets for their program offerings, and major networks can also air programming on the third screen first and wait for programs to get popular before airing them on USA, MSNBC or NBC. The iPhone and the iPod have been critical to transforming the political process and the entertainment business from a revenue generating and a pure entertainment perspective.
However, the iPhone and the iPodTouch has already impacted the biggest entertainment business of them all: higher education. If higher education can extend the best parts of its NCAA model to the academic side, it will create a business that will rival the major networks, publishers, and music content providers. Furthermore, this organization would also be a major online player too, since most of the people from the tech world have higher edudational roots. The iPhone has already impacted the IT departments of many universities such as Duke, Colgate, and Stanford where the voracious appetites of iPhone users have placed new pressures on their networks. Now that the iPhone is $199 and $299 and the iPodTouch works via WiFi, every university will have to brace themselves for the iPhone and iPodTouch onslaught that will be hitting universities this summer and this fall. Research indicates that iPhone users are large users of online data. Do not be surprised when many college IT departments adopt the iPhone platform and the iPhone itself now that the iPhone SDK has opened up the phone to developers who will quickly improve this device through software. This will amount to an upgraded phone every month for those who want to buy.
Finally, the most important reason that higher education will change higher education is the delivery of content. Apple delivers more digital content than anyone in the world, and the company has created a future gold mine with its free podcasts which inevitably will be branded with ads from NCAA corporate sponsors on the academic side. The day will come when Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon will all benefit from residuals of ads placed strategically within podcasts. Apple's new iTunesU has been extremely successful in its first full year of operation. The fact that major schools such as Duke, Stanford, MIT, and others are distributing their content through iTunes speaks volumes of the future of higher education through time shifting. The distance learning industry will also be forced to changed now that students can carry their class in their pocket and retrieve their classes anytime, anyplace and anywhere. The fact that high profile schools like Duke have already bought iPods for their students and now many universities are looking to the same for the iPhone at a cheaper price on a better network with GPS and software updates makes the iPhone an irresistible device for higher education. Now, if I can really convince my colleagues in higher education on the importance of utilizing these tools and making their presentations more interactive we could help stabilize education costs. Did you hear that sucking sound? That is the sound of big media publishers screaming when colleges begin to create their own digital publishing outlets that will enable professors to teach and publish online simultaneously. Administrators are going to have problems with the whole tenure process since they love hiring adjuncts on the cheap! The real question becomes this: what will they do when the first academic rockstar professors are born! Even if they win the intellectual property war, which is not a given, many professors will simply jump ship and sign better deals with universities because of the new crop of intellectual property attorneys. Stay tuned because I hear a storm coming!
Now that's edutainment!
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