Concepts

Premium Strategy

Differentiation can equal huge profits, if you it can be maintained.

  • 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 […]


  • It’s Time to Kill Surface

    “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 […]


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


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


  • Samsung’s Disappearing Differentiation

    Earlier this week Samsung, and I’m quoting the headline of the press release, “Unveil[ed] Comprehensive, Lifestyle-Focused Galaxy Gifts Package for Next Generation Galaxy S5”: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced its collaboration with 16 of the world’s leading mobile content and service providers to offer Galaxy S5 users more than $600 worth of exclusive, pre-paid […]


  • Two Bears, Revisited

    One of the more annoying aspects of the late great PC area was how review sites treated Macs: for all intents and purposes, they were just another PC. Consider this CNET review of the 2007 MacBook Pro:1 The good: Updated CPUs and graphics without an updated price; LED-backlit display for better battery life; 802.11n support. […]


  • iPad Predictions, Revisited

    I wrote about my expectations for tomorrow’s iPad event back in August in an article entitled The iPad is like the iPod, not the iPhone. The introduction: Most folks seem to instinctively compare the iPad and the tablet market to the iPhone and smartphone market, and it’s easy to see why. They share the same […]


  • An Interview with Eric Jackson at Forbes

    Eric Jackson recently interviewed me for his column at Forbes. I’m cross-posting here my answers to the tech industry related questions. Check out the full interview to read more about me personally and the background of stratechery. Q: Where is Apple at right now as a company in this post-Steve Jobs period? A: I think, […]


  • What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong

    Clayton Christensen continually predicts that Apple will be disrupted because his theory does not incorporate the importance of the user experience.