tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54197862011-11-17T12:24:19.720-05:00My thoughts on disruptive technology, culture and the future.Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comBlogger311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-54890746266989373602011-11-17T11:56:00.002-05:002011-11-17T12:24:19.754-05:00

Last week we announced a major milestone in Kobo's short history. In just a matter of 23 months, we have built a substantial business with nearly 6 million readers in 100+ countries, one of the world's biggest bookstores, a family of eReaders, top rated apps and strong partners in North America, Europe and APAC. Sales have been pretty amazing also, with growth outpacing the industry. It has

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-83230958803553037242011-04-03T06:46:00.004-04:002011-04-03T08:33:11.388-04:00

There's got to be something to the fact that I have a blog called "my thoughts on disruptive technology, culture and the future", that I started ages ago, that I have not touched since last January, 2010 - 1 month after Kobo was born. Let me tell you about it. My earliest memory of going to the bookstoreI used to go to this bookstore in Macedonian region of Greece during summer vacations, not

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-32743796630799193082010-01-26T20:52:00.001-05:002010-01-26T20:53:50.929-05:00

Twas the night before iTablet, when all through the publishing houseNot an executive was sleeping, they reached for their mouseThey read many news reports signaling the end,For St. Jobs had a press conference he would soon attend;The techies were tweeting 140 characters or lessDirty visions of touch screens made them a messAnd Bezos in Seattle, and I in the Great North,Had just settled in for a

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-80781897998268136802009-12-18T07:09:00.001-05:002009-12-18T07:11:58.505-05:00

This week is an exciting and long-anticipated one for us here at Kobo!We renamed, rebranded from Shortcovers to Kobo, and launched a new web site and mobile apps early this morning. Kobo is an anagram of “book”, and a name that we think will resonate globally. Here is why that is important….We’ve spent the past year assembling a group of investors that can offer the retail and mobile

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-14717994365416923982009-08-13T10:41:00.001-04:002009-08-13T10:51:25.468-04:00

People have been talking about eBooks for almost a decade, and BAM! in the last year, a virtual eBook tsunami hit and now you read about eBooks everywhere, everyday. In the halls of publishers and booksellers, there are a lot of ‘discussions’ about pricing, formats, cannibalization, what happened to the music industry, and what to do next. Gartner thinks eBooks are at the Peak of Inflated

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-22974100517040818642009-02-27T00:17:00.002-05:002009-02-27T00:30:21.641-05:00

This morning at 6am EST, Shortcovers went live on the web and mobile devices like the iPhone and Blackberry, with pricing in US and Canadian dollars.Here are some of the Highlights :Users from 46 countries have signed up to ShortcoversOver 1000 of you signed up and downloaded our mobile appsNeil Gaiman’s ‘The Graveyard Book’ was the top seller, with President Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1030165459141355512009-02-23T23:52:00.002-05:002009-02-24T00:03:44.344-05:00

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Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-55167829615004202842009-02-17T21:09:00.002-05:002009-02-17T21:21:11.607-05:00

Check it out 

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-55313716992823676682009-02-10T22:08:00.002-05:002009-02-10T22:33:20.104-05:00

What a week!Lot's of news in only a couple of days. Check it all out on Twitter or our Blog. One of the best ones about Shortcovers was from PCWorld - Kindle's New Challenger brings E-books to iPhones. The attention on the publishing sector and reading digitally is growing by the day. Announcements from Google and Amazon, the impending launch of Shortcovers drove tons of buzz. Meanwhile,

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-55883787539394487072009-02-04T09:41:00.002-05:002009-02-04T10:03:34.720-05:00

I recently was digging through some stats on the music industry. What an eye opener. From 2001 to 2007, Albums sales (as reported by Neilsen Soundscan) dropped from 650M to 428M. Of the 222M drop in units, 48M went digital. The rest? Over 1 Billion tracks i.e. individual songs downloaded. So physical sales declined, and user behaviour changed.Was 2008 the beginning of the trend, or even

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-60656372334506454972009-01-19T22:53:00.003-05:002009-01-19T23:52:46.597-05:00

So many smart people become cogs in the giant machinery of corporate America.Fortune 500 companies. The dream jobs college grads seek out. Lead by captains of industry. Household names. Licenses to print money. Fountains of opportunity. Places that would make parents proud.Until one day, they don't (make anyone proud). They hit a point where they've lost their way. They've lost that

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-55488810521287634092009-01-14T23:56:00.003-05:002009-01-15T00:15:10.039-05:00

When I first joined Indigo, we talked about the future of the book and what it meant for the industry - when would ebooks 'happen'?. We had this idea that people are reading differently already, on screens in shorter sessions, more often, leveraging their downtime on the go. A whole new generation is used to sampling content, making a decision, purchasing what they want, anytime & anyplace.

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-45296899749410730102009-01-11T20:36:00.003-05:002009-01-12T10:58:16.927-05:00

One of my first conversations at Indigo was about the digitization of books, and when the ebook would 'happen'. It's hard to believe that was almost 3 years ago now. We kept looking at the size of the ebook market, which was tiny and not that exciting. But then we started paying attention to the consumer instead of the market, and our resounding conclusion - people are reading differently (

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-14284039779323791202008-12-31T09:38:00.002-05:002008-12-31T10:21:05.174-05:00

It was 2001, February. Our newly shrunken executive team called management from around the world to our San Francisco headquarters. The situation was bad, and everyone there knew it. The smell of the new office only added to the irony. Mis-stated earnings, thanks to some mistakes made and lies told. Fraud. Dept of Justice, SEC and other investigations on their way. A class action forming.

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-28064412234448999022007-08-26T23:27:00.000-04:002007-08-26T23:43:46.231-04:00

I love the sound of a new car. Especially one infused with new technology, and performance as its purpose. There are some great new machines out there that leverage conventional combustion engines, new metal hydride / lithium ion batteries, electric motors and a whack of software to make smart decisions in order to optimize fuel consumption and overall performance. A number of equations

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-43097532729748041342007-08-23T22:20:00.000-04:002007-08-23T22:57:53.305-04:00

I remember the day I met the Al Gore "crisis management team" we were in trouble. Gore eventually lost the presidency and hanging chads were all the rage. David Boies did has best, but...no mas. (incidentally David & his son Chris were more useful to our litigation but that's another story)2 seemingly average guys in every san francisco way....our PR team was muzzled and every communication

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-91987110443517742312007-06-26T22:23:00.000-04:002007-06-26T23:12:22.831-04:00

Are not enough.Back in the day, I remember wondering how i would come up with the next big thing. My ideas included superconductor propulsion, network "life", communities of commerce in the early internet, agent based systems, secure communications... and so on...I was motivated by the big idea. I romanticized about it. About inventing it; finding it; dreaming it....and when i had it,

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-24043944027949817372007-06-19T20:47:00.000-04:002007-06-19T21:27:53.423-04:00

Jonathan sent me a great link today from marc andreesen's blog (blog.pmarca.com) about startups and "why not to do a startup." Having done a few startups and also experienced what happens when 10 startups are acquired, here i am living to tell about it. One piece of Andreesen's post cites various X factors that can come along and "whup you right upside the head"...completely knock you off your

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-5831561004577040132007-04-10T23:24:00.000-04:002007-04-11T00:33:16.757-04:00

I'm sure you've heard the expression...It comes from baseball and refers to the statistic 'batting average' or #hits / #at-bats. Getting a hit every time you're at bat is batting a thousand. Batting greater than "three hundred" or getting a hit 3 out of every 10 at - bats is pretty good. Batting greater than "four hundred" is next to impossible (last done by ted williams in 1941), and has

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-20659320677984492022007-03-02T20:28:00.000-05:002007-03-02T21:21:18.085-05:00

I met an elite top gun fighter pilot recently. The guy definitely looked like a fighter pilot. 6ft tall, chiseled, confident, tough...and of course, that tom cruise smile.More importantly, he looked like a fighter. I am told that that is the real difference between the best pilots and the rest. The best pilots are fighters first and pilots second. They are insanely competitive and tough.

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1152242175625341902006-07-06T22:45:00.000-04:002006-07-06T23:23:41.626-04:00

I just read this wonderful little book recommended to me by a friend - The Alchemist. One message really sticks out in the book, paraphrased - "when you really want something (your personal legend), the universe conspires to help make it happen." This stands out as I've experienced it on several occasions, both personally and with people I know. It's a very hopeful message and whether you

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1140492121364605192006-02-20T21:59:00.000-05:002006-02-27T21:27:26.793-05:00

I recently joined Indigo Books & Music as CIO / CTO. A definite change from the world of mobile & broadband operators, but a lot of similarities in terms of delivering consumer services at scale where retail is king. While Web 2.0 technologies flourish, search moves beyond page rank, and content is disaggregated, mixed and mashed by/for consumers in new ways online, in store, on demand, in

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1138714257122020012006-01-31T07:33:00.000-05:002006-02-27T21:25:00.343-05:00

I've done a lot of reading lately, and have bumped into one of my favourite subjects so much that I had to blog about it: Math. I've recently read Fortune's Formula, Twilight in the Desert, Against the Gods, the latest Walrus (Bird Flu edition), and the latest Business Week (Math edition). Guess what? Math is everywhere :) I smile when I hear my wife or parents say that...when I hear anyone

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1137384466224558282006-01-15T21:53:00.000-05:002006-01-15T23:07:46.280-05:00

Ok, ok....so I am a terrible blogger. I am currently averaging about 1 post every 5 months. Not exactly prolific :) I guess I have been busily travelling the world at an exhausting pace, meeting with the world's leading telecom operators working on future communications solutions for consumers. Maybe I have been lazy. Of course, The truth is somewhere in between. Why write tonight? Well, I

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1112196878798740232005-03-30T10:34:00.000-05:002005-03-30T10:47:48.386-05:00

Today I had the privelege of attending a breakfast talk given by the new chancellor of Queen's University, Charles Baillie, former Chairman and CEO of TD Bank. The topic was competitiveness, innovation and leadership, with the basic premise being that we (Canadians) need to be innovative to succeed in the global economy and an important key to that is increased funding for universities and

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1112065366102151072005-03-28T22:02:00.000-05:002005-03-30T10:41:45.066-05:00

I find India absolutely fascinating. I visited Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Delhi in 2 short days and had a very positive experience with the people, food and growing mobile market there. There are 33 million people in Mumbai, and that can help you understand why it took 2.5h to travel 15km back to our hotel after our last meeting for the day.As of this year, there are almost 2 million new mobile

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1110919972005098762005-03-15T15:37:00.000-05:002005-03-30T10:42:09.496-05:00

In the days of information overload, I believe we are all going to start caring a lot more about the quality of the content we receive on our terminal / device of choice. In particular, I believe the screens of Preference, Priority and Reputation are a good start to filter all the noise we get on a daily basis.Take Music, as an example:Preference - I prefer iTunes to any other music site out

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1110731631301003592005-03-13T10:41:00.000-05:002005-03-30T10:42:51.630-05:00

After an almost 2 year hiatus, a recent meeting with a colleague who has his own blog got me thinking about writing again. I've been spending most of my time recently in mobile / telecoms, in particular looking at mobile data and the kinds of services that can drive its adoption.Most of the excitement in mobile data is happening in Europe and now, in Southeast Asia and as such I've been spending

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1058798651466717802003-07-21T10:44:00.000-04:002005-03-30T10:49:51.173-05:00

Nanotech - The Next Big Thing Is Really SmallRichard Feynman, a Nobel laureate in physics (1919-1988), renowned for his classic talk entitled, "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom, An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics" (presented on December 29th 1959 at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech): "The principles of physics,

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1058666976558796662003-07-19T22:09:00.000-04:002005-03-30T10:51:00.193-05:00

It's never going to happen. I hear that a lot about fuel cells. I remember playing with fuel cells in the late 80's when I was working on a high temperature superconductor propulsion system - a science fair project that took a life of its own. The concept of a renewable energy source didn't mean much at the time, however the science did. Then came the first gulf war and I learned about the

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419786.post-1053689929404636882003-05-23T07:38:00.000-04:002005-03-30T10:51:51.306-05:00

I just came back from the inaugural SNS Future in Review conference where I got to meet some great thinkers, and discuss the future of technology. In short, Moore's law is still cooking, while software is done; radio free intel is on fire, molecules will be like bits today in 50 years, and you will probably see IP enter your stereo in the near term. My favourite was learning of a former

Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14481318523372831337noreply@blogger.com