From a customer perspective, this ban is highly inconvenient. From a governance perspective, it makes sense.

The Unspoken

The government’s concern is security. Their presentation of this issue could have been better but their core concern is valid. That is, their unspoken fear of a scenario in which a group of terrorists use a secure foreign network to launch attacks. Whether the probability of this is high or not, I cannot judge – I’m sure the UAE government, which has done a great job of securing us so far, can decide for me.

From the customer’s perspective, this is not just an inconvenience, it is an affront to freedom of speech… oh wait, there isn’t any! Sure, there is a theoretical possibility that monitoring of emails, phone calls and messages can be abused, but this is a question of trust between the customer and the government. Does the customer trust the government to not abuse its power? Does the government trust customers to not misuse their freedom? What “contract” do the two parties have?

Wait a minute, there’s a third player. RIM, a foreign organization! How can I entrust my data to RIM but not the UAE government? Do I have greater trust in the laws of Canada, a country that I have never been to? Or does RIM provide a contract that the UAE government doesn’t?

The Solution

The logical solution here is:

• for the UAE Government to provide assurance that the customer’s privacy will be safe-guarded. Let them become our guardians and not someone we must fear.
• for the UAE Government to reach an understanding with RIM as to what the data will be used for. There is clear rationale for monitoring and RIM cannot ignore it.

There is also a greater issue of privacy, freedom and rights,  which is really another topic. But is it really surprising that a minority wishes to police its own country by all means possible? The few implicitly fear the many, unless they have power over the latter. And no one likes to live in fear in their own country.

With the iBookstore, the iPad may attract people to reading, but it will not pull readers away from the comfort of an e-paper based reader. Serious readers who want to read more than blogs will be attracted to the eye-friendly, battery-efficient approach of the Kindle, the Sony Reader, and similar e-ink devices.

Where Apple scores marks is giving Publishers the freedom to price their ebooks; compare this to Amazon’s bare-knuckle approach of setting a maximum price of $9.99. But Apple is not a bookseller, yet.

How will Amazon respond to the iPad?

One possible strategy they may pursue is to release a Kindle application for the iPad that allows users to purchase books from Amazon – whether Apple will approve such an application is another guess (refer to the Apple-Google wrangle over a Google Voice app for the iPhone). A Kindle application is already available on the iPhone.

What is Apple? They sell computer devices – indeed, they are marshaling the transition from computer devices to consumer devices. But Apple is not a bookseller; Amazon is.

What is Amazon? They sell/distribute books, they publish books for sell-published authors, and they sell an ebook reader. They’re a combined bookseller, publisher, and distributor. Their focus is on digital content. What they’re really doing, long-term, is competing with the publishing industry as a whole (which explains their relative disdain for the ISBN), but they’ve pre-empted the war with a battle over price, and this is where Apple and other companies with large consumer bases see an opening. By allowing Publishers to set their own prices, they have offered a way out for a bewildered industry.

What Amazon needs to do is calibrate their present grand strategy of introducing an alternative publishing eco-system to current circumstances. How they can do this without making publishers redundant, I’m not sure. Perhaps publishers will become mere filter houses for quality content – an interesting question for another post.

Where does Google fit in?

Google Editions, a web-based bookstore, is around the corner – reportedly, in the 1st half of 2010. This fits in nicely with the iPad. Google goes toe-to-toe with Amazon as a competing book publisher, bookseller and distributor (indeed, the 3 terms will become indistinguishable in the future). Will they invest in an Android-based tablet? Or will they wait for the Google Settlement to pass?

Given the rapid rate of change, it’s impossible to say what exactly will happen, or even if the ideal equilibrium will be achieved. As a wise man said, we shall see.

The author, an avid reader, is a “technologist” working for a chain of bookstores in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.