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: More on GT Advanced’s Shady Bankruptcy, Apple Watch in China Vogue, LINE Reveals MAUs
Good morning, Apple has announced another event for this Thursday for presumably the iPad, Mac, and OS X. However, I don’t think I’ll be writing a preview piece (except in this newsletter); that, more than anything, describes the iPad’s faded star. I do have a whole host of thoughts, though, I just plan on savingSubscribe […]
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: iPhone Delayed in China, Apple Watch Edition, Xiaomi Could Have Done Worse
Good morning, I’m a bit distracted as I write this; I’m simultaneously refreshing the Apple Store in the hopes of ordering an iPhone, but it’s been almost two hours and the Store has yet to appear, making this three cloud messes for Apple in two weeks. As with the livestream, the Occam’s Razor explanation isSubscribe […]
The iPhone 6: From Louis Vuitton to Chanel
The iPhone 6 is going in the opposite direction that Apple’s critics think it should: more expensive, not less. It will work because Apple owns the high-end.
Daily Update: Amazon Local Register, Messaging Apps Are Extremely Profitable, Samsung v HTC
Good morning. Hello from somewhere between Madison and Chicago. I’m in the car on the way to the airport, heading back to Taiwan. As I noted yesterday, updates for the rest of the week will come at odd hours, including, obviously, today’s. Thanks for your patience. Yesterday on the main site I asked Is BuzzFeedSubscribe […]
Daily Update: Apple’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
Good morning, I am on vacation this week, so instead of Daily Updates based on the news of the past few days, I am doing Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis’ of five of the most important companies in tech: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon. These analysis’ are not meant to be comprehensive – I’m going toSubscribe […]
Smartphone Truths and Samsung’s Inevitable Decline
For me, anyway, the most surprising thing about Samsung’s disappointing earnings was just how surprised many folks seemed to be. The smartphone market is a massive one, but also rather predictable if you keep just a few key things in mind: Everyone will own a smartphone – I don’t think this is controversial, but it’s […]
Daily Update: Apple TV Follow-up, Twitter COO Resigns
Good morning, Just two items today, but two biggies: a massive follow-up to my most recent article on Stratechery, as well as an overview of the Twitter mess. On to the updates: More on Apple TV and Consoles I wrote last week that it seemed few people knew that Computex is going on, which isSubscribe […]
Growing Apple at WWDC
In the end, as with many of Apple strategies, much of what transpired in Monday’s WWDC keynote was telegraphed many months ago, at least from a strategic perspective. Consider the thinking behind iOS 7. As Jony Ive told USA Today: When we sat down last November (to work on iOS 7), we understood that people […]