This week, a new email service, Hey.com, had their app halted (and maybe potentially removed as it had been previously listed by what Apple has called 'an error') because they do not offer the ability to purchase the service through the app. Without paying for the app, the Hey service is useless. Thus, Hey offers …
Insider Privileges
Prairie Home Companion begins with a mischievous maxim that all children in Lake Wobegon are above average. The equivalent adage in Silicon Valley goes like this: Every insider acts like an outsider. This adage reflects mythology as well as savvy public relations. The largest technology firms possess names recognized in most households, and they perceive …
Apple and the AI non-threat
Technology and business forecasting is hard. I get that. That is one reason I try to avoid it except, of course, for fun or to get attention. But the one thing that continues to perplex me is why pundits keep coming back to one specific well: that Apple is doomed. The latest is surrounding the …
10 Years Ago Today
It is 10 years ago today that the most significant consumer technological innovation, possibly of the last 50 years, was introduced. Here is Steve Jobs introducing it: If you have never seen it, you should watch. The original iPhone is a shadow of its counter-parts today. But the design is essentially the same. All mobile …
Apple makes changes to the App Store
Apple announced two major changes to the App Store for its various software platforms (iPhone, iPad and OSX). The first would be to allow search based advertising. The second would be to reform subscription pricing. These are large changes as I will explain below. Search-based Advertising A little appreciated fact is that apps themselves have …
Is Kayne West leveraging monopoly power?
Kayne West has a new album. I would say 'out' except that it is only available on Tidal, a music service owned by Jay Z and other artists. Up until now, the artist owners have released their work on the usual variety of platforms. But last night that changed when West tweeted that his new …
Why is Apple a copycat?
Apple is a copycat. There I said it. Well, not in everything. Yesterday they made some big announcements including the updated OS for the Apple Watch and also new iPhones with an entirely new dimension of interaction that rivals will surely struggle to implement. And along with that they will use the front screen as …
Is Apple at antitrust risk from music streaming?
Just a decade or so since the music industry was disrupted by the digital world, it is well into another business model disruption over streaming. And like that previous disruption, it seems that artists are wondering where all the money is going. This was the topic of David Byrne's New York Times opinion piece this …
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Why the iPhone confounds disruption theorists
Nokia, Motorola, Sony-Ericsson and BlackBerry were all victims of disruption. During the 1990s and 2000s, they led the cell phone during its period of take-off into ubiquity. Then in the last five years, they have lost their leadership and are on the verge of irrelevance. The common culprit was the 2007 launch of Apple’s iPhone. …
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Some random thoughts on the Apple Car
It has been a week and the Apple Car rumour hasn’t been denied by Apple. (Here’s the background in case you have been living under a rock). So what are we to make of all this? Much of what has been talked about is complete speculation. That it will be electric, autonomous, a mini-van (!) …
Digitopoly 