Good morning, As you will see in your inboxes momentarily, I wrote a new post on Stratechery called Two Microsofts about Microsoft’s decision to make Office free on mobile for consumers. The big takeaway is that, if you look at Microsoft through the lens of business models, they are already two different companies: one consumer,Subscribe […]
How Apple Creates Leverage, and the Future of Apple Pay
Apple attracts loyal customers through a superior user experience and leverages those customers against its partners.
Daily Update: The Smiling Curve Applied to Amazon-Hachette, How Important are the FCC’s Proposed TV Changes?, Facebook’s Earnings
Good morning, A quick announcement: as some of you may know, Glassboard, which we’ve been using for the Stratechery message board for Access members, is closing down. A couple of relevant notes: For new Access members, this is why you have not received an invite I am implementing a new solution There will be broadSubscribe […]
Publishers and the Smiling Curve
Publishers used to live at the point of integration. The value of that integration, though, is gone with the Internet, which means value flows to suppliers and aggregators.
How Technology is Changing the World (P&G Edition)
P&G is cutting product lines, the plethora of which made far more sense in the retail world than online. More change is coming.
Daily Update: Facebook’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
Good morning, I am on vacation this week, so instead of Daily Updates based on the news of the past few days, I am doing Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis’ of five of the most important companies in tech: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon. These analysis’ are not meant to be comprehensive – I’m going toSubscribe […]
Economic Power in the Age of Abundance
Publishers are trying to threaten Google again, apparently unaware that because of the Internet they have no power: that flows to the platforms that control discovery.
Publishers’ Deal with the Devil
Ay, we must die an everlasting death. What doctrine call you this, Che sera, sera, What will be, shall be? Divinity, adieu! – The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe To evoke Faust as allegory for the ongoing dispute between Amazon and book publishers is appropriate on two levels, the first being the nature […]
Newspapers Are Dead; Long Live Journalism
The fundamental economic model of newspapers is broken; for journalism to survive, new business models must be found.
FiveThirtyEight and the End of Average
Just a few minutes ago, Nate Silver’s new FiveThirtyEight site launched. While it’s not known how much ESPN is paying Silver, it’s certainly a substantial amount, especially when you consider 20% of visitors to the New York Times stopped by Silver’s blog. Silver’s FiveThirtyEight is one of a growing number of personality-driven sites and blogs, […]