Despite the hype about disruption, the truth is most tech giants, particularly platform providers, are not so much displaced as they are eclipsed. IBM, for example, has been successfully selling and servicing mainframes for going on 50 years (although they are now in serious trouble (members-only)). During the PC era, though, they were eclipsed by […]
Daily Update: The Disruption of IBM, An Alternate View of IBM’s 2015 Profit Goal, IBM Sells Fabs to GlobalFoundries
IBM was turned around once, but the turning around made the company ripe for disruption by cloud computing.
Daily Update: Apple Earning, Apple Pay Launches
Good morning, I’m finally set up in the new place, albeit a couple of hours late. Thanks again for your patience both yesterday and today. I look forward to getting back up to speed. Today I’m focusing on Apple’s earnings and the Apple Pay rollout; I’ll catch up on some other items tomorrow, including IBM.Subscribe […]
Daily Update: Microsoft’s Misguided iPad Response, Netflix Reports Results, Google Updates Nexus
Good morning, The news of the day was certainly the fact that HBO is planning to sell subscriptions directly to customers. It’s a big deal, but the reaction among tech folks has been way over the top; this is not the beginning of the end of the cable bundle, for all the same reasons ISubscribe […]
Daily Update: Hailo Exits North America, Intel Earnings, Macworld Expo is Over
Good morning, I apologize for the lack of pieces on the main Stratechery blog this week; we’re moving house, and it’s all a bit hectic. I should have something up later today. On to the update: Hailo Exits North America One of the most persistent criticisms of Uber has been that it will face anSubscribe […]
Daily Update: PayPal and Square, Facebook Payments?, Samsung: What Now?
Good morning, As I note below, I finally posted my PayPal article. Check it out! On to the update: PayPal and Square Yesterday I wrote on Stratechery about how PayPal is destined to grow increasingly irrelevant as innovation in the payments space moves to merchant account-based purchases: PayPal’s success in solving the peer-to-peer problem hasSubscribe […]
Daily Update: Ello Follow-up, Windows 10, Apple Watch in Paris
Good morning, The biggest news yesterday was that Ebay plans to spin off Paypal. I definitely think this is the right move, but I also suspect it’s too late. I plan to write more about it in a day or two. On to the update: Ello Follow-up I was actually surprised I didn’t get moreSubscribe […]
Ello and Consumer-Friendly Business Models
Vox introduced Ello this way: A brand-new social networking startup — Ello — has gone viral. At one point on Thursday, the site was acquiring 31,000 new users an hour — many of whom flocked to there because of a disagreement with Facebook over its policy requiring real names, which some say is unfair to […]
Microsoft’s Good (and Potentially Great) Minecraft Acquisition
It’s difficult to overstate what a big deal Minecraft is. It’s the third best-selling game of all time behind Tetris and Wii Sports, and unlike the latter especially, it is a remarkably sticky experience: the vast majority of customers (over 90 percent on PC, according to Microsoft) sign in every single month. Were Microsoft to […]
Daily Update: Alibaba Opens Roadshow, Twitter Testing Purchases, Microsoft Rebrands Bing Apps to MSN
Good morning, Finally, no Apple items in today’s Daily Update. I think we’re all well and truly inundated, and you should probably brace yourself for today’s onslaught. On to the update: Alibaba Opens Roadshow The New York Times has an excellent profile of Alibaba founder Jack Ma: When the Alibaba Group goes public later thisSubscribe […]