Daily Update: Taylor Swift v Daniel Ek, What Swift Gets Right, The Problem with Spotify

Good morning, As you will see in your inboxes momentarily, I wrote a new post on Stratechery called Two Microsofts about Microsoft’s decision to make Office free on mobile for consumers. The big takeaway is that, if you look at Microsoft through the lens of business models, they are already two different companies: one consumer,Subscribe […]

Daily Update: Talko, Bye-bye Beats Music?, About that iPhone Line Film

Good morning, I wrote about Uber yesterday, but in reality I was actually writing about why I think the tech industry should become much more proactive about the development of a social safety net. Not only would a better safety net spur entrepreneurship, but it would also provide a cushion for those who lose theirSubscribe […]

Daily Update: Uber v Lyft in NYC, Defending Surge Pricing, Taylor Swift on Music

Good morning, I wrote a piece on Stratechery called Smartphone Truths and Samsung’s Inevitable Decline. While it is mostly about why Samsung’s disappointing results shouldn’t be a surprise, there are also several points that cover why Apple is not doomed, but Microsoft and Amazon are. Today’s theme is supply-and-demand, and we unsurprisingly start with UberSubscribe […]

Daily Update: Amazon’s PR Runup, Box Acquires Streem, Priceline Acquires OpenTable

Good morning, Two acquisitions and anticipation for a big announcement – there’s always something interesting in tech! On to the update: Amazon’s Press Release Runup Amazon is doing something interesting in the runup to tomorrow’s announcement, which most expect to be a Kindle smartphone: they are effectively pre-announcing multiple features that will likely be sellingSubscribe […]

Daily Update: Justifying Beats, Amazon Prime Music Streaming, Swipely and Square Follow-up

Good morning, I will be traveling to San Francisco next week, which means the timing of these updates may be a little irregular for the entire week (likely several hours later on Tuesday through Wednesday in particular). Thank you for your patience. For Access members, I plan on doing some sort of live chat duringSubscribe […]

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 – […]

Apple and Beats, Box adds GE, Comcast Entering Online Ads

Hi all, Keep an eye out today for the Week in Daily Updates, especially if you would like to encourage others to subscribe (please do!). In addition, as I note below, I’ll almost certainly write something about Apple and Beats. Speaking of: Apple Reportedly Buying Beats The Financial Times had the scoop: Apple is closingSubscribe […]