大树底下好乘凉：苹果催生的商机
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可以在苹果上听的书 公司名称：Red Planet Audiobooks 所在地：德克萨斯州，奥斯汀 网站：redplanetaudiobooks.com 托比•海德尔自称未来学家。他也是“红色星球有声读物”（Red Planet Audiobook）公司的创始人兼CEO，iPhone和iPad用户对该公司的发展起到了巨大的推动作用。 独立作家和小报刊与该公司合作（只雇佣十几人），提供他们手稿的音频版本。其中多数可以通过iTunes下载。书库每月新增8到15本书籍。其中很多被归到自助类别，或浪漫、科幻等边缘/另类主题。 海德尔说：“很多传统出版商还没有看到其中的商业价值。” 第一代iPhone问世的短短几个月后，红色星球有声读物就于2007年11月推出，这并非偶然。他说：“苹果改变了人们听书的方式。突然之间，人们开始听故事了——而且全都是数字格式。”他还谈起从CD到听“磁带上的书籍”的转变，二者有着共同的麻烦。 “毫无疑问，苹果产品的成功给了我们这个行业生存的活力。” 他本人同时也是乔布斯的狂热粉丝。海德尔说：“他显得狂放不羁，但作为CEO却十分专注，对苹果的规划始终如一。小企业创业者的注意力往往很容易受到干扰。但乔布斯为我们树立了一个光辉的榜样，他始终按照自己的节奏前进。” |
Changing the way we read Company: Red Planet Audiobooks Location: Austin, Texas Website: redplanetaudiobooks.com Toby Heidel calls himself a futurist. He's also founder and CEO of Red Planet Audiobook, which has gotten a huge boost from iPhone and iPad users. Indie authors and small presses partner with the company (employing just a dozen people) to offer downloadable audio versions of their manuscripts. These are mostly available through iTunes. Between eight and 15 books are added to its library monthly. Most of those fall into the self-help category or fringe/alternative topics like romance or sci-fi. "A lot of traditional publishers have not seen the value in it," said Heidel. Launching in November 2007, just a few months after the first generation iPhone, was no accident. "Apple changed how people listen to books. All of a sudden, people are listening to spoken-word products -- and they are all digital," he said, citing the shared annoyance of shuffling through CDs to listen to "books on tape." "I can say without a doubt that the success of Apple's products has made our business viable." He's also a huge fan of Jobs. "The chutzpah that he has shown, the single-mindedness as CEO," said Heidel. "There's a real coherent vision to the company. As a small business person, you get pulled in a lot of directions. But he's a shining example of someone who marches to the beat of his own drum." |
