Good morning, Happy Memorial Day to my US readers, and Happy Monday to the rest of the world. When it comes to holidays, I plan on observing the Taiwanese holidays for most of the year, but American holidays during the summer (i.e. July 4). I’ll always let you know before I take a day offSubscribe […]
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 […]
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 […]
Microsoft Cloud Announcement, Cordova and Windows RT, Xbox Silliness
Good morning, I went deep on Apple’s (alleged) acquisition of Beats, yet in some ways, I’m not sure I went deep enough. One thing I was trying to capture is that there is a very benign explanation for this acquisition: Beats solves a lot of problems for Apple. And maybe that’s all it is. Still,Subscribe […]
Bill Gates’ Steve Jobs Moment
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, once pirates, now legends, are forever linked in tech history. You know the lore: both collaborators and competitors in the 80s; Gates dominant in the 90s; Jobs triumphant in the 00s. Their career arcs were different though: Gates went out on top, retiring to a life of philanthropy, while Jobs […]
The General-Purpose iPad and the Specialist Mac
I’ve written previously that the iPad was helping to unbundle the general-purpose PC: The iPad and the Disaggregation of Computing The Humpty Dumpty PC The (Alleged) 13-Inch iPad and the Triumph of Thin Clients From the Humpty Dumpty PC: The iPad and other appliance-like devices have actually had the opposite effect [as compared to the […]
Windows 8 and the Cost of Complexity
PCs just suffered their worse quarter ever. From the WSJ: World-wide PC shipments fell 10% last year, research firms Gartner Inc. and IDC said Thursday, the worst-ever sales slump for the industry. Both companies have been tracking personal computer sales since the 1980s. Computer makers have been hurt as consumers and businesses spend more time […]
Chromebooks and the Cost of Complexity
While there is a question of degree, it seems quite certain that Chromebooks had a pretty good 2013. Many are attributing this to price – most Chromebooks cost $300 or less – and they’re almost certainly right. It seems like yet another case of disruption: a cheaper, inferior product enters the market against a competitor […]
The Truth About Windows Versus the Mac
Ben Evans wrote the article I’ve been wanting to write about why the phone market is fundamentally different than the PC market. I’m glad he did; his version is even better that what I had outlined. A quick taste: In the 1990s, the PC market was mostly a corporate market (roughly 75% of volume). Corporate […]
Review: Chromebook
After reading this piece by Matt Baxter-Reynolds praising the Chromebook, I bought one just to give it a try. And now, with today’s announcement of the Chromebook Pixel, it’s past time I share my thoughts on the platform. To be perfectly honest…I love it. Hardware I am using the Samsung 11.6″ Wifi model, which has […]