Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales talked about both the continuing power of print and the key to selling apps during his presentation at Marketing’s Digital Day 2010, held in Toronto this week.



Wales said paper remains an amazing technology which is nowhere close to being replicated for its various uses that its electronic counterparts can’t match. “It’s cheap,” he said. “It can be used in the rain and on the beach.”

He also spoke to the other end of the spectrum, about media companies selling applications, saying the key is taking away the need to pull out credit cards and make it a true micropayment system. “If the application just comes to me then I will do it,” said Wales. “The price isn’t the barrier, it is putting in your credit card details – it’s just too much work. Companies need to make it a true impulse purchase, to reduce the barriers for people to buy something.”