Modular versus Integrated
Modularity and integration happens throughout the value chain, and is the key to providing a superior user experience and extracting profits.
-
Google Shopping is changing its model, suggesting Google is joining the Anti-Amazon Alliance; 3rd-party merchants should do the same.
-
The fate of Harry’s and other DTC companies, particularly relative to companies like Credit Karma, highlight how the Internet elevates the importance of demand over supply.
-
Apple has won through integration, but integration combined with network effects and economies of scale can result in bad outcomes that look a lot like monopolies.
-
Companies succeed or fail not based on technology but rather according to their ability to integrate within their value chains.
-
Intel is in an increasingly bad position in part because it has been captive to its integrated model. Or, you could simply say they were disrupted.
-
Netflix has a lot more in common with Uber and Airbnb than you might think: it all comes back to the Law of Conservation of Attractive Profits, a core principle of disruption
-
An Interview with SAP CEO Christian Klein About Enterprise AI
An interview with SAP CEO Christian Klein about why one of the oldest software companies of all is well-placed to win with the newest technologies.
-
American Disruption
A new take on Trump’s tariffs, including using a disruption lens to understand the U.S.’s manufacturing problem, and why a better plan would leverage demand, not kill it.
-
The Anduril Lattice SDK, Understanding Lattice, Anduril + Palantir
Anduril announced the Lattice SDK, which isn’t as exciting as a new weapon, but is in fact much more important for the future of the U.S. military
-
GM Kills Cruise, Fleets Versus Autonomy, Robotaxi Outlook
GM killed Cruise’s robotaxi ambitions, which were never a good match; then, mapping out a future robotaxi world.
-
An Interview with Gregory Allen About Transforming U.S. Defense
An interview with Gregory Allen about U.S. defense and the role that tech plays in overhauling what is a very dysfunctional process.
-
An Interview with Ben Bajarin About Smartphones, AI, and Intel
An interview with Ben Bajarin about AI’s impact on the smartphone market, including the differing strategies between Apple and Google. Then, a long discussion about what to do about Intel.
-
Intel Earnings, Intel’s Nadir
Intel’s earnings were bad again, but the downward movement in the stock should have been priced in years ago; current management, meanwhile, can’t be evaluated for at least two more years.
-
AMD Acquires ZT Systems, AMD’s Integration, Substack In-App Purchases
AMD is acquiring ZT Systems in a bid to integrate AI system design and AI chips; then, more on Apple’s creator tax