“The question that needs to be asked and answered is why hardware.” To Satya Nadella’s credit, he provided not just the answer, but the question as well. And, looked at narrowly, there were good things seen – and not seen – at Microsoft’s Surface event. Having clearly failed as a mass market device, it makes […]
Daily Update: Lenovo Earnings, Windows 8 Banned, Google Buys Divide
Good morning, Only 49% of you opened yesterday’s email (it’s usually 80%+); I heard from several folks on Twitter that it got sent to spam, likely because of GroupOn, so please take a look and mark it as “not-spam” if that is the case. I’ll be writing about the Microsoft Surface announcements on Stratechery laterSubscribe […]
Daily Update: GoPro Files for IPO, Angela Ahrendts’ and Apple Retail, Groupon Launching iPad Checkout System
I wrote a piece yesterday on Stratechery called The Net Neutrality Wake-up Call. While I did touch on some net neutrality specifics (again, I know), my broader point is that the collision of the political and technological worlds is only beginning; we as an industry would be well-served by getting involved sooner rather than later.Subscribe […]
Daily Update: AT&T to Buy DirecTV, Google to Buy Twitch, Facebook Building Snapchat Competitor
Good morning, After a relatively slow week, lots of stuff happened this weekend, so let’s get to it: AT&T to Buy DirecTV Lots of folks are comparing this proposed deal to the Comcast-Time Warner merger, but I think it’s much more benign, both from an explanatory perspective as well as an impact one. One ofSubscribe […]
Daily Update: Square Retrenching, Tencent Crushes Earnings, Cisco and the NSA
Good morning, In case you missed my announcement, I’m moving forward with Stratechery’s originally planned podcast, called Exponent. You can get all of the relevant feeds and links at Exponent.FM. On to the update: Square Retrenching Earlier this week Square withdrew Square Wallet from the app store and launched a new service called Square Order.Subscribe […]
Why Apple Is Buying Beats
That’s a bit of a presumptuous headline: The sale is not yet confirmed UPDATE: The deal was confirmed on May 28 It’s likely no one outside of 1 Infinite Loop will ever likely know the true reasons Indeed, as Benedict Evans wrote in his weekly newsletter: The deal [is] something of a Rorschach Blot – […]
Daily Update: Google v Oracle, Mobile Gaming and Gambling, Third-Party Mobile Platforms
Good morning, I’m still thinking a lot about the Apple Beats deal, and plan on a post later today, so keep your eyes out. It’s really one of the more fascinating deals we’ve seen since, well, Facebook and Google buying Occular and Nest, respectively, but with Apple everything is magnified. In the meantime, a longerSubscribe […]
LINE Results, Nintendo Hurting, Katie Cotton Retiring
Good morning, I thought it worth calling out this letter from several leading tech companies defending net neutrality. I’ve been quite cynical about their willingness to go to the mat for net neutrality; I certainly hope this is the beginning of deeper engagement on their part. On to the updates: LINE Releases Results…Kind Of LINESubscribe […]
Apple Retail and the Innovator’s Dilemma
Angela Ahrendts officially took over as head of Apple Retail last week, and just in time. Same store sales were down five percent last quarter, and have been hovering around zero for several quarters prior. To be fair, that decline is mostly due to Apple’s slowed growth; more concerning is the declining rate of store […]
Daily Update: Twitter Earnings, WWDC Hardware Speculation, Google Identity
Good morning, I believe I have isolated the private feed problem being experienced by Feedly users to aggressive cacheing by my host, WPEngine. They are investigating the issue and will hopefully have a fix some time today. Sorry for the trouble. On to the update. Twitter’s Earnings Twitter’s stock is getting killed in after-hours afterSubscribe […]