Simple answers to complex questions: Why did Apple buy Beats by Dr. Dre?
I’m starting a new series called simple answers to complex questions. It’s imagined along the same general principles that undoubtedly led to the principle of parsimony called Occam’s Razor. I will delve into many seemingly perplexing questions which likely has tons of experts or even academics commenting and opining on all sides. And will offer […]
Android is a Pain in the Ass
<small edits for clarity> I’ve been doing a lot of mobile stuff recently and have every phone there is: #WindowsPhone, #Blackberry 10, #iPhone, #Android. These are generally all test phones without a SIM operating over wifi. For productivity and calls, I rock #WindowsPhone and a bit of #iPhone. So rewind 2 weeks and my main […]
Its gold! (Because we say so)
You have to love marketing in the Twitter age. It’s almost mind blowing in its capacity for mass hypnosis. You might have heard about the new phone from Apple, the iPhone 5s. You might also have heard that there is a ‘gold’ version – the iPhone 5s Gold. Now a reasonable person hearing this would […]
Media companies need to increase investment in technology R&D to win
Caveat – everything here (except the part about me) is low confidence – maybe 3/10. It’s based on some conversation and my voracious reading of lots of material around the cable, content and wireless industries. You should treat this more like an op-ed. The media industry (from what I can gather) has traditionally innovated in […]
Management rule # 43 – You can only be as dickish as Steve Jobs if you’re number 1
People forgive benevolent dictators a lot. A lot they would not forgive anyone else under most circumstances. Every leader has to balance their style in order to get stuff done, but absolute despots have to worry less about balance. And this is one of the reasons Scott Forstall is out at Apple. He had a […]
Surface Reax
Microsoft’s Surface was all the buzz last week for very good reasons. It’s a vertical move from a company that is resolutely horizontal in its strategy – the original platform company (Windows, Office). When a company undertakes this kind of strategy change, it’s a VERY BIG DEAL. There is a lot of commentary on this, […]
An iPad in every loo
So today I caught myself heading to the bathroom with my iPad (Ewww! you say; look I constantly clean the screen, so don’t worry). Yeah I’m a ludic reader. But then I began to think about this some more. A lot of homes I know have a magazine rack in their loos. If the […]
Set Top Box vs. Mobile markets
Excerpt from a strategy analysis done at the Columbia Business School, months before the reveal of the nascent Apple TV plans and when Steve Jobs was still alive and king of the iKingdom – Oji Apple CEO Steve Jobs Live at D8 – John Paczkowski – D8 – AllThingsD Q: Is it time to […]