Inatt vaknade jag upp med ett ryck. Jag hade drömt igen. Den här gången handlade det om Maten. Hur jag skulle laga den där enorma chiligrytan. Jag kunde inte. Det gick inte. Jag grät. Satt paralyserad framför den enorma grytan och kunde inte röra mig. Jag var naken, och ensam. Ingen kunde hjälpa mig med min chiligryta. Det här är en blogg om just den chiligrytan och hur jag ska lyckas besegra den.

And, to play devil’s advocate for a moment, I’m not sure the decision is entirely unreasonable. Don’t think about it in terms of Apple’s relationship with its carrier partners, but instead think about it in terms of Apple’s competition with Google. Google Voice is a mobile phone service provided by the maker of one of the biggest competitors to the iPhone OS. What if Google Voice were instead Microsoft Voice? And what if Windows Mobile were as modern and competitive as Android? Would you be as surprised then that Apple is discouraging iPhone owners from using the service? Just saying.

ALL of the plans are scams anyway. We live in a digital age. The whole concept of “minutes” and “texts” is very 20th century. It’s all digital bits anyway. It should be a fee for connecting to the network and that’s it. Use any device (computer, phone, etc) and use it how you like (voice, text, email, surfing, whatever). It should be no different from your connection at home.

But if the author of the news story, or opinion piece, or blog post, tends to the comments, replies to the good ones, signals the bad ones, chastises the loudmouth bullies, and generally runs the comment threads like a serious discussion group, a serious discussion will result.

I’m not pretending to be an expert on the details of exactly how newspaper companies should adapt. But you don’t have to be an expert to notice the obvious. Newspapers are losing millions of dollars. New, online-only publications, on the other hand, are operating at a profit. And there is a stark difference between the two: new online publications are lean and mean. They are small, flat organizations where most of the employees are producing actual content.

We have a situation where 70% of music consumption is digital and yet only about 20% of music company revenues are derived from digital. Music is in demand and the demand is growing all the time, but we’ve clearly lost touch with our consumers. I passionately believe that if we listen to our consumers, this gap will become our opportunity.

Whether they realize it or not, media companies are in the service business, not the content business. Look at iTunes: if people paid for content, then it would follow that better content would cost more money. But every song costs the same. Why would people pay the same price for goods of (often vastly) different quality? Because they’re not paying for the goods they’re paying Apple for the service of providing a selection of convenient options easy to pay for and easy to download.