Horizontal Versus Vertical
Understanding the difference between horizontal and vertical strategies is critical to making smart strategic decisions.
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Cable TV created a world where differentiated content could profit from everyone; that is why it will be hard for Disney to make the choices streaming will force on them.
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My well-chronicled frustration with Microsoft’s corporate strategy comes down to one point: I don’t think any company should have both horizontal (i.e. services) and vertical (i.e. devices) businesses. It creates conflicting incentives: a horizontal business…
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Zillow Shuts Down Offers; Where Zillow Went Wrong; Reflecting on Zillow, Aggregation, and Integration
Zillow is ending Zillow Offers; where did the company go wrong, and what my initial analysis got right, and what I missed.
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AT&T’s Original Bad Deal, Discovery + WarnerMedia, The Streaming Landscape
AT&T bails on its streaming ambitions; they can’t undo the mistake of buying Time Warner, but merging WarnerMedia with Discovery is a nice recovery.
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Apple, Epic, and the App Store
The App Store is not one thing: it is installation, payments, and customer management; the further Apple gets from iOS, the worse its actions are for users and developers.
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Amazon Just Walk Out, Waymo Raises $2.25 Billion
Amazon Go is licensing its technology, contrary to my previous prediction. Then Waymo is taking on outside investors which should result in a needed shift in incentives.
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Apple Card Launches, Without a Website; Revisiting Stratechery: If Steve Ballmer Ran Apple
Apple Card launched without a website, which suggests something fundamental about Apple’s nature. Then, revisiting a Stratechery article from six years ago.
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Apple’s Services Event
Apple’s Services Event generally made sense, even if most products weren’t ready to launch. It’s fair to wonder, though, if something important is being lost.
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Apple’s Errors Follow-up, Apple’s Services Pivot, Samsung Warns on Revenue
Apple’s Errors don’t preclude the idea that prices are too high; meanwhile, the company is meaningfully pivoting to services, at least in terms of content. Then, Samsung’s pain is Apple’s gain.
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Facebook and Virtual Reality Follow-up, Tim Cook’s Speech on Privacy, What About China?
More on Facebook, virtual and augmented reality, and it’s long-term strategic play. Then, Tim Cook gave a remarkable speech on privacy; how much does Apple’s stance matter?
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New Alexa Devices, Amazon and the EU Commission
Why is Amazon selling more Alexa devices? More broadly, do the company’s house brands leave it susceptible to an antitrust challenge?