It’s Time to Kill Surface

“The question that needs to be asked and answered is why hardware.” To Satya Nadella’s credit, he provided not just the answer, but the question as well. And, looked at narrowly, there were good things seen – and not seen – at Microsoft’s Surface event. Having clearly failed as a mass market device, it makes […]

Daily Update: JD.com Prices IPO, Google’s SEC Letter, Patent Reform Dies

Good morning, My Surface piece got pushed to today, so keep an eye out for that later. On to today’s update: JD.com Prices IPO While tons of attention has been paid to Alibaba’s forthcoming IPO, JD.com, China’s 2nd-largest e-commerce company, has flown under the radar. From the BBC: Chinese online retailer JD.com has raised $1.8bnSubscribe […]

Daily Update: Lenovo Earnings, Windows 8 Banned, Google Buys Divide

Good morning, Only 49% of you opened yesterday’s email (it’s usually 80%+); I heard from several folks on Twitter that it got sent to spam, likely because of GroupOn, so please take a look and mark it as “not-spam” if that is the case. I’ll be writing about the Microsoft Surface announcements on Stratechery laterSubscribe […]

Podcast: Exponent Episode 004 – Technology and Politics

On the newest episode of Exponent, the podcast I co-host with James Allworth: Are the recent debates on net neutrality, the protests of Google buses, even SOPA a sign of things to come? Building on yesterday’s article The Net Neutrality Wake-up Call, we discuss the intersection of technology and politics. Why do people in technology […]

Daily Update: GoPro Files for IPO, Angela Ahrendts’ and Apple Retail, Groupon Launching iPad Checkout System

I wrote a piece yesterday on Stratechery called The Net Neutrality Wake-up Call. While I did touch on some net neutrality specifics (again, I know), my broader point is that the collision of the political and technological worlds is only beginning; we as an industry would be well-served by getting involved sooner rather than later.Subscribe […]

The Net Neutrality Wake-up Call

Sometime in the summer of 2002, having just graduated from university and determined to change the world, I was driving home from Albert Lea, Minnesota formulating my resignation letter. After graduating I had, rather naively I suppose, assumed that politics was the best means to effect the change I desired, and so had taken a […]

Daily Update: AT&T to Buy DirecTV, Google to Buy Twitch, Facebook Building Snapchat Competitor

Good morning, After a relatively slow week, lots of stuff happened this weekend, so let’s get to it: AT&T to Buy DirecTV Lots of folks are comparing this proposed deal to the Comcast-Time Warner merger, but I think it’s much more benign, both from an explanatory perspective as well as an impact one. One ofSubscribe […]

Announcing Volume Discounts + The Week in Daily Updates (Week 4)

I am pleased to announce that you can now purchase and manage multiple licenses for the Stratechery Daily Update (or Update & Access): There is a 10% per-license discount for 2 or more licenses These accounts may be set up and managed centrally or on an individual basis Volume licenses are only available on an […]

Daily Update: Xiaomi Releases Tablet, Pinterest Raises $200m, Zendesk IPOs

Good morning, I am pleased to announce that you can now purchase and manage multiple licenses for the Stratechery Daily Update (or Update & Access): There is a 10% per-license discount for 2 or more licenses These accounts may be set up and managed centrally or on an individual basis Volume licenses are only availableSubscribe […]