A new theory of device-enabled presentations; the iTunes ARPU average revenue per user and its putative erosion; a definition of smart devices, the cycles of computing as a continuum.
Category: Podcast
The Critical Path #83: The Analyst Taxonomy
Horace proposes a classification of analysts and their motives and how to think about the value of commentary. We delve into how Apple executives obtain and preserve authority and talk about the disruptive impact of Nintendo. Also a hint about a new Perspective presentation before WWDC.
The Critical Path #82: Adding Rows
The Apple Q1 financial performance review with a short look at the impact of warranties on gross margins. The growth question: why financial analysis cannot offer insights into new product creation, and why makers of things think different. Finally, a new installment into Asymcar: why the process of car making is over-integrated, over-serving, and over-concentrated.
5by5 | The Critical Path #82: Adding Rows.
The Critical Path #81: Continuous Flow
We cover misleading headlines with respect to the iPhone at Verizon while questioning the ebb and flow of media tone on Apple news. We also dive deeper into Asymcar and how to think about car manufacturing. Finally, how to approach industry analysis regardless of your industry.
Horace Dediu Interview – Why Businesses are more Fragile than People
The best and brightest are usually put to work on optimisation, and asked to improve the way things work. ‘Can you make it better, faster, and stronger?’ They will then go forward and solve the inefficiencies, and that’s where 99% of most energy is spent on. But, at some point you run out of room to improve things, and that’s when you have step aside and ask, can we make it different?
via Horace Dediu: Asymco Interview – Why Businesses are more Fragile than People.
Be sure to check out my “Favorites”.
The Critical Path #80: Functional Structure
A report on Ùll with recollections from Don Metlon and Michael B. Johnson (Dr. Wave): what is a functional organization and why is that a thing of beauty? What do Pixar and Apple have in common? What is Horace’s favorite Pixar movie? Also a new mini-installment on “Asymcar”, what’s wrong with cars?
The Critical Path #79: Make It Rain
This week we cover a bit of Facebook Home, a bit of YouTuber economics, the best analogy ever heard for Google’s business model, and we kick off Auto industry analysis with the “Five Whys”-the paradoxical questions that nobody seems to be asking about cars.
via 5by5 | The Critical Path #79: Make It Rain.
This was a good one.
The Critical Path #78: Facebook Inside
Youtubers, BlackBerries and what Facebook is planning with their “Home on Android”. Horace and Moisés discuss how co-branding, strategy, and secret deals intertwine, with illustrations from Intel, Sony-Ericsson, and Acura
The Critical Path #77: Making Sausages
The more we deconstruct and take apart iTunes, the more we come to respect how is cannot exist independent of the system it’s a part of. Its scope and scale and its history and future all indicate that there is more to it than just a store and that it might be a platform in its own right. We get into some more details about all these details and talk about where it came from and where we think it will end up.
5by5 | The Critical Path #76: Google vs. Android
Beginning with the data on activations, we traverse the strategic implications of a shift in Android governance and management. Along the way we also cover Samsung’s marketing strategy, budget, and the Galaxy S 4 launch.