It’s difficult to overstate what a big deal Minecraft is. It’s the third best-selling game of all time behind Tetris and Wii Sports, and unlike the latter especially, it is a remarkably sticky experience: the vast majority of customers (over 90 percent on PC, according to Microsoft) sign in every single month. Were Microsoft to […]
2014
Daily Update: Google Launches Android One in India, Good News on Patents, Apple’s Payment Strategy
Good morning, I hope you had a pleasant and relaxing weekend! Google launched Android One this week, and there are more rumors that Microsoft will indeed buy Mojang. More on that if it happens. On to the update: Google Launches Android One in India Google first announced Android One at this year’s Google I/O, promisingSubscribe […]
How Tim Cook Might Have Introduced Apple Watch, and Exponent Episode 017: Let’s End it There
In 2010, John Gruber wrote an article for Macworld called This is How Apple Rolls: They take something small, simple, and painstakingly well considered. They ruthlessly cut features to derive the absolute minimum core product they can start with. They polish those features to a shiny intensity. At an anticipated media event, Apple reveals this […]
Daily Update: iPhone Delayed in China, Apple Watch Edition, Xiaomi Could Have Done Worse
Good morning, I’m a bit distracted as I write this; I’m simultaneously refreshing the Apple Store in the hopes of ordering an iPhone, but it’s been almost two hours and the Store has yet to appear, making this three cloud messes for Apple in two weeks. As with the livestream, the Occam’s Razor explanation isSubscribe […]
Daily Update: How Tim Cook Should Have Introduced Watch, Apple Pay and the Apple Watch, Microsoft to Buy Minecraft?
Good morning, I wrote about the Apple Watch introduction on Stratechery in a piece called Apple Watch: Asking Why and Saying No. In short, while I like everything hardware-related about the watch, I was very concerned with both the keynote messaging and the software. Moreover, I think those two concerns are interrelated: the need theSubscribe […]
Apple Watch: Asking Why and Saying No
Dan Frommer wrote in Quartz about The Hidden Structure of the Apple Keynote. His analysis covered 27 events since 2007, and included things like average length, laughs per executive, and the timing of iPhone reveals. It’s a good read, but in light of the Watch introduction, I am more interested in comparing yesterday’s keynote to […]
Daily Update: The New iPhones, Apple Pay, Good-bye iPod Classic
Good morning, So the Apple event happened yesterday, and it was really quite crazy. I’ve been following these for a long time and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the frenzy that crescendoed just before the event kicked off. And then the live stream crashed. Anyhow, I plan on writing about the Apple Watch forSubscribe […]
Daily Update: Alibaba Opens Roadshow, Twitter Testing Purchases, Microsoft Rebrands Bing Apps to MSN
Good morning, Finally, no Apple items in today’s Daily Update. I think we’re all well and truly inundated, and you should probably brace yourself for today’s onslaught. On to the update: Alibaba Opens Roadshow The New York Times has an excellent profile of Alibaba founder Jack Ma: When the Alibaba Group goes public later thisSubscribe […]
Daily Update: Banks Are the New Carriers, Marc Newson Joins Apple, Wearable Price Prediction
Good morning, Happy Moon Festival! This is one of my favorite holidays here in Taiwan. It’s a bit like Thanksgiving in the States, but instead of turkey everyone sits outside and barbecues and drinks. It’s pretty fantastic. It’s also why this Daily Update is so late! While today is more about payments and wearables, it’sSubscribe […]
Wearables, Payments, Chickens and Eggs
I feel a bit sheepish that this is the third of what will in all likelihood be four articles about Apple in a two-week span. I figured the scale of what Apple is planning to announce necessitated at least two preview posts; one about the iPhone and this one about wearables and payments. And then […]