Modular versus Integrated
Modularity and integration happens throughout the value chain, and is the key to providing a superior user experience and extracting profits.
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Google Shopping is changing its model, suggesting Google is joining the Anti-Amazon Alliance; 3rd-party merchants should do the same.
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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.
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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.
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Companies succeed or fail not based on technology but rather according to their ability to integrate within their value chains.
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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.
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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
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Nvidia’s Integration Dreams
Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM only makes sense from a financial perspective, unless you buy Jensen Huang’s datacenter dreams.
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Chips and Geopolitics
TSMC showed the power of modularization, and now they are core to the U.S. national security strategy.
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The Anti-Amazon Alliance
Google Shopping is changing its model, suggesting Google is joining the Anti-Amazon Alliance; 3rd-party merchants should do the same.
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Email Addresses and Razor Blades
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.
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Integration and Monopoly
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.
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Shopify and the Power of Platforms
It is all but impossible to beat an Aggregator head-on, as Walmart is trying to do with Amazon. The solution instead is to build a platform like Shopify.
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AMD Launches 7nm Chips, Sony Partners with Microsoft, Apple and AWS
AMD leapfrogs Intel thanks to modularity, Sony partners with Microsoft thanks to scale, and Apple balances both.
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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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The Value Chain Constraint
Companies succeed or fail not based on technology but rather according to their ability to integrate within their value chains.