Concepts

Making Money

Business models are the surest way to understand a company’s motivations.

  • Daily Update: Twitter Earnings, WWDC Hardware Speculation, Google Identity


  • Daily Update: Bitcoin and China, Samsung Earnings, International Plans for Xiaomi and Lenovo


  • Daily Update: Microsoft, Qualcomm and Amazon Earnings


  • Daily Update (2014-04-24): Apple Earnings, Capital Structure; Facebook Earnings


  • Battle of the Box

    The battle between Dropbox and Box show the differences between selling to consumers and selling to enterprise.


  • Business Models for 2014

    Perhaps the greatest continuing disconnect between technologists and normals is the value ascribed to software. As Marc Andreesen famously declared, “Software is eating the world,” and while that is absolutely true, software, especially in the consumer space, is not eating value, at least not directly. In fact, if 2013 taught us anything, it’s that the […]


  • Open Source Apps

    I’m a bit late to the most recent flareup around app store pricing – it’s been a busy week of traveling – but it’s worth noting that the trend towards free is basically inevitable and the expected result in a functioning market. To put it another way, apps want to be free just like apples […]


  • If Steve Ballmer Ran Apple

    Bear with me, I know my premise is ridiculous. Imagine Steve Ballmer was right now the CEO of Apple, with the same set of products and opportunities. Suspend disbelief about cultural clashes, or organizational structure. Presume Ballmer could set the strategy, and that Apple would execute it accordingly. In this scenario Apple would make more […]


  • The App Store Rainbow

    Postulate: The greatest differentiator for iOS is the quality of its apps. That’s the position taken by Benedict Evans in a must-read piece: If total Android engagement moves decisively above iOS, the fact that iOS will remain big will be beside the point – it will move from first to first-equal and then perhaps second […]


  • Mobile Makes Facebook Just an App; That’s Great News

    “Strong opinions weakly held” is a core principle of mine, and while I think I’ve demonstrated strong opinions aplenty on this blog, today it’s time to give credence to the “weakly held” part. Specifically, I have been wrong about Facebook. I’ve been a bear about their long-term prospects, and now I am a bull. My […]