eCommerce
Visa, Mastercard, or iPhone?
Google and Apple will soon compete with Visa and Mastercard to process your payments in stores, restaurants, and online. Both companies will be pulled into payment processing because both have built two valuable networks: one of developers who build apps, the other of consumers who buy them. But the developer network has diminishing returns, whereas [...]
How Amazon Can Compete with Apple
At the moment, Amazon's best selling Kindle is the king of the eBook readers. But the impending launch of Apple's iPad means that unless Amazon changes its direction and its mindset, the Kindle is kindling. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a tough habit to break. It started when he built the Kindle and he deliberately [...]
Why the iPad Matters — even if you are already sick of it.
The PR was stunning, the product impressive, and the strategy tiresome. Apple stoked rumors of a dreamy tablet for either two years old or thirteen, depending on how you count. For six months, the leading tech blogs have been quivering with speculation about the "Jesus tablet". One blog, Gizmodo, offered $100,000 cash for an hour [...]
The Future of Twitter
Twitter just raised $100 million on a $1 billion valuation, making Twitter about as valuable as say, Barnes and Noble, which has 720 bookstores and about $5 billion in revenue. Twitter revenues? Well, none. But someday we can serve ads to all those eyeballs, right?Right. But the competitors are circling. And I don't mean Facebook [...]
Billionaire Amazon CEO works in his own warehouse.
He looks like a leprechaun and laughs like a hyena, but do not ever underestimate Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Back in 2006, Amazon accounted for 5.1% of all online sales. Now it accounts for 6% and it's cash flow more than doubled. The company ranks 8th in the Fortune 500 for ten year [...]
Reinventing and Rediscovering Music
The traditional music industry is dead and likely to be more studied than missed. Every label is in trouble, mainly because CD sales decline every year, with 2009 likely to be a free fall. Every dedicated music retail chain is out of business. Only the #1 retailer matters – Apple’s iTunes. The rest, including Walmart [...]
Media Wants to Be Digital, Downloadable, and Free
Mooreâs Law famously describes an important trend in computer processing power: the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit increases exponentially. Specifically, Intel founder Gordon Moore observed that chip density doubles about every two years. Thanks to Mooreâs Law, computer processing is now free for most intents and purposes. Metcalfeâs [...]
Gravity Lessons
Leaders of businesses assaulted by technology can sympathize with Wile E. Coyote. We know how he feels when he discovers that the road beneath his feet has turned to air. We laugh in sympathy as his expression turns sheepish and he pedals frantically. We know that fall is gonna hurt. These days you can find [...]
Are You Ansgarr?
When you spend just a bit too much time around books, book customers, and technology, this starts to look pretty funny… [Update: they removed the embedding. Click here instead.] And when you spend just a bit too much time around librarians, this is pretty funny too.
Silicon Valley's Hottest Startup
Here is my vote or Silicon Valley’s coolest, er, hottest startup. It is not a hosted software play. Not wireless. Not search. Not software or ring tones for cell phones. Not porn. It is, in fact, an e-commerce company. No, not books. Tesla Motors is an angel and venture-backed Silicon Valley startup that has been [...]
How Long the Tail — and How High the Head?
This is the question of the season for two reasons: Dead Man’s Chest, the recent installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, which launched last night, and The Long Tail the much-blogged, long-awaited book by Wired’s Chris Anderson. The movie features (what else?) a Kraken, a veritable long-tailed, high-headed Leviathan that unceremoniously sucks ships out of [...]
Ubuntu
Are you watching Ubuntu? Tim O’Reilly is. Microsoft and Apple sure as heck are — to say nothing of Red Hat. Unbuntu is popping on the O’Reilly-Yahoo! Buzz Market, a maybe reliable indicator of advanced geek fetishes. What is Ubuntu (other than a Swahili word with a lot of different translations)? It is "Linux for [...]
Net Neutrality: What Kind of Competition?
Has anyone come up with a succinct and economically coherent view of net neutrality? For those lucky enough to not be focused on this, net neutrality is many things, but it is roughly the policy of requiring network operators to give equal treatment to all the traffic on their networks. Hot topic before Congress at [...]
Chris Anderson on demand you thought you'd never find
Caught up with Chris Anderson this morning. Chris runs a terrific blog and left me with a sneak preview of his forthcoming book: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. The book is an ode to niche markets and is exceptionally well written (it also has a couple of [...]
