2020
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Brandless Closes, The DTC Facebook Challenge, DTC Versus Softbank
Brandless is closing down, which is being spun into a commentary on Softbank. This is fair, but the bigger takeaway is about DTC broadly.
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The Corona Virus Whistleblowers; NBA Salary Cap Decreases; Apple, Benefits, and Risks
The Coronavirus continues to spread in China, even as reports emerge of why it was not dealt with in time to make a difference, reframing the costs of authoritarianism.
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Spotify Earnings, Podcasts and Lifetime Value, The Ringer Acquisition
Spotify’s mixed earnings, why podcasts are uniquely valuable to the company, and where The Ringer fits in.
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The Iowa Fiasco, The Best Feature, Three Lessons
The fiasco surround the Iowa caucuses is an occasion to learn three lessons: what is a tech company, technology is hard, and why Facebook is like Microsoft.
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Google Earnings, YouTube and Google Cloud, Google’s Falling Margin
Google finally released new financial information about YouTube and Google Cloud, but it is still not sufficient. Then, Google’s margins are falling just like Facebook’s: is the engine finally sputtering?
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Exponent Podcast: It’s Been a Week
On Exponent, the weekly podcast I host with James Allworth, we eulogize Professor Clayton M. Christensen. Listen to it here.
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Epic Systems and Electronic Health Records, Aggregators and Data Portability, Epic’s Privacy Objections
Epic Systems, an electronic health records company, is protesting a mandate that they make consumer health care available via API. Their arguments highlight the tension between interoperability and privacy.
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Apple’s Earnings, Slowing Services Growth, Apple and the Coronavirus
Apple’s surging iPhone sales and slowing services growth suggest that lots of iPhone customers are upgrading. It’s a testament to how strong Apple’s position is that revenue it misses now it catches later.
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The Tragic iPad
The iPad is 10, and while it remains a useful device, it is ultimately a disappointment. Apple lost the vision for what the iPad could be, and never gave space for developers to figure it out for them.