Pleco: Building a Business, not an App

This past week has not been the first outbreak of independent developer angst over the app store, but it feels like it has been one of the more intense. The pump was primed by the news that Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is on pace to make $200 million this year, news that was in stark contrast […]

Daily Update: The Twitter Enigma, Amazon Follow-up, Diapers.com CEO Raises $50 million

Good morning, A quick heads up re: meetups for Access members. The time and location of Friday’s New York meetup has been finalized and should be in your Inbox. If you didn’t get the email or wish to join, please follow up with me directly. Same with Chicago and Madison. As for the update, ISubscribe […]

Losing My Amazon Religion

Benedict Evans asks a good question: If you were running this business, why would you slow down to take profits? pic.twitter.com/mbMNfbyZT4 — Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) July 28, 2014 The growth curve is impressive enough, even before you notice that the scale is logarithmic. And to be sure, Amazon has had doubters from the beginning: few […]

Daily Update: Zillow Acquires Trulia, Samsung Delays Tizen Again, China Investigating Microsoft

Good morning, Tech is amazing: after doing more of a thematic Daily Update yesterday, I now feel behind on everything that is happening. And it’s late July! One more bit of followup though on media and authority: I thought it was interesting to see Nate Silver complain about the attention the New York Times wasSubscribe […]

Daily Update: Media and Authority, The Structural Changes in VC, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood

Good morning, While there are a few more earnings results this week – Twitter’s should be especially interesting – we are otherwise into the summer news slowdown, which means today’s Update is a bit more circumspect, yet hopefully interesting all the same. On to the updates: Media and Authority Yesterday the New York Times editorialSubscribe […]

Podcasts: Exponent Episode 010 – Clap on Three; This Week in Tech – Netflix Thinks I’m a Bronie

On the newest episode of Exponent, the podcast I co-host with James Allworth: In this episode we discuss feedback about Uber and pricing, then talk about Ben’s recent articles on Microsoft and Apple/IBM. Ben Thompson: It’s Time to Split Up Microsoft – Stratechery Ben Thompson: Big Blue and Apple’s Soul – Stratechery (Note: We recorded […]

Daily Update: Amazon Earnings, Xiaomi Releases Wearable, Facebook Messenger and Uber

Good morning, First off, I had a new post on Stratechery on Wednesday about the Apple-IBM deal called Big Blue and Apple’s Soul. Check it out if you missed it. Secondly, I am having meetups for Access members in New York (8/1), Chicago (7/31) and Madison (TBD) over the next couple of weeks. I haveSubscribe […]

Daily Update: Facebook Crushes Earnings Again, Qualcomm’s China Problem

Good morning, Only two updates today, because both are big ones, and I don’t want to wear you out! Earnings week continues with two very interesting results from Facebook and Qualcomm. On to the updates: Facebook Crushes Earnings Again From Bloomberg: Sales rose to $2.91 billion for the period from $1.81 billion a year earlier,Subscribe […]

Big Blue and Apple’s Soul

I hope you’ll forgive my writing about week-old news,1 but I find it striking to compare the paucity of words written about Apple’s partnership with IBM, at least relative to what was written when Apple acquired Beats. After all, the IBM partnership is a much bigger deal. It certainly seems that Tim Cook feels the […]