The keynote for Macworld Boston, August 6, 1997, was pretty bizarre by today’s standards. The first speaker was Colin Crawford, President and CEO of Mac Publications for IDG, who put on the conference. He proceeded to recount all of the dire headlines surrounding Apple. This made an appearance: It wasn’t pretty. Jobs was next. Gil […]
June 2013
Additional Notes on Casual Games
This series of posts is about enabling sustainable businesses on the App Store. In Part 1, I discuss why Paper and other productivity apps may not be doing as well as you might think. Part 2 explores why casual games, in contrast, are a sustainable business, but not a differentiator for platforms (I added a […]
Casual Gaming is a Sustainable Business, but Not a Platform Differentiator
This series of posts is about enabling sustainable businesses on the App Store. In Part 1, I discuss why Paper and other productivity apps may not be doing as well as you might think. Part 2 explores why casual games, in contrast, are a sustainable business, but not a differentiator for platforms (I added a […]
Papering Over App Store Problems
This series of posts is about enabling sustainable businesses on the App Store. In Part 1, I discuss why Paper and other productivity apps may not be doing as well as you might think. Part 2 explores why casual games, in contrast, are a sustainable business, but not a differentiator for platforms (I added a […]
More content for Apple TV
AllThingsD: Apple’s TV hobby just got a bit bigger: Apple has added five new content providers to its sort-of set-top box, notably Time Warner’s HBO Go and Disney’s WatchESPN. Also available as of today: Satellite TV service Sky News, anime subscription service Crunchyroll, and concert subscription service Qello. Apple TV owners who have access to […]
Strategy Credit
A strategy credit is the opposite of a strategy tax: it is when a hard decision for other companies is easy because of business model.
When Apple Moves Fast
In October 1999, Steve Jobs announced that the future of the Mac was video. In January 2001, Jobs laid out a new strategy: the Mac would be a digital hub, and their first focus would be music. In 15 months, the entire strategy shifted, and the company along with it. “I felt like a dope,” […]
Waze Winners and Losers
Google acquired Waze earlier this week for a reported $1.03 billion. This is an interesting deal for a few different reasons with a clear set of winners and losers. Big Winner: Waze This is an incredible exit for a company with only ~17 million active users and negligible revenues. Waze is a great product – […]
Tim Cook is a Great CEO
Perhaps my favorite Steve Jobs keynote moment was one of his last, at the iPad 2 introduction in March 2011. The last demo of the day, just before Jobs introduced the idea that Apple existed at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, was GarageBand for iPad. The demo was truly spectacular, and it clearly […]
WWDC Predictions
I’ve written two significant pieces about what I expect at WWDC. Jony Ive is not a Graphic Designer link As with most such debates, “skeuomorphism” versus “flat” is devoid of crucial context. When the iPhone came out, nobody used touch devices. The signaling benefits of skeuomorphism were very useful, especially since most iPhone buyers were […]