Read before you share – otherwise it’s gossip
A rubbish post by Business Insider titled “This Survey Is Devastating For Microsoft: 42% Of Windows Users Plan To Switch To Apple” and a very dubious post by the New York Times titled “The Tablet Market Grows Cluttered” drew my attention today – the latter claimed that About 98 percent of Web traffic from tablets comes […]
Surface & iPad Collision Course
Ok, I’d been looking around for a Surface I could try out. Even though I have my doubts about Windows 8 and especially RT I also am excited about a lot of the features that these operating system(s) have. But amid the parts that I hate and parts I hate, there is the simple fact […]
Is Apple Vindictive and Evil?
Apple has not won all of its lawsuits. In fact, other than one big jury award it has for the most part been losing cases. Certainly, outside of the “home court advantage” here in America it has done rather poorly. In an especially humiliating loss outside of the US, Apple was instructed to modify its […]
The Best Government Money Can Buy
I work in Asia where government influence (“bribes”) is exceedingly common. Granted, it is officially illegal, but as a practical matter it is essential. I remember traveling into Cambodia via rail. At the border crossing there is an immigration office where you apply for and get a visa to enter. The room was packed with […]
Actually, Cars that Fly and Float May Not Be So Bad
Apple CEO Tim Cook left behind his old metaphor of “fridge and toaster” and is now calling Windows 8 a car that flies and floats, while not exactly doing either function very well. I am not exactly a Win8 fanboy, but there are a few (emphasis on few) things Win8 is doing well: informative tiles […]
Apple iOS / OS-X vs. Windows 8 / RT == OS Goulash & Predictions
All These Thoughts Derived at Seattle Coffee Works in Downtown Seattle, a good place to enjoy the use of an iPad or Windows RT Tablet. Ok, I’ll admit it, I have a soft spot in my heart for Windows 8. At least in the tablet form. I honestly prefer it over the iPad model of […]
Patently Messed Up
What is innovation? It’s a simple enough question, except that it is not. Most innovation is synthesis of other ideas. Rare is there something entirely new that is invented. (And even then the argument can be made it is just synthesis.) And, is something really innovation if five other people come up with it concurrently? […]
iPhone Stolen Again – Apple Couldn’t Care Less
When does a corporation have an ethical responsibility to its customers? Is it right for a company to profit by encouraging customer losses? Some would say that a company’s responsibility is simply to comply with the laws and to return a profit….
Apple – Color Acquisition Rumors
So people are scratching their heads on news rumors (OK, rumours for some of you) on Apple buying failed (?) startup Color (Colour, if you insist). All I can say is: back to 1977 🙂 Related articles Apple Said to Acquire Color (thenextweb.com) Apple Buying Color Tragically Makes Sense (informalprotocol.com) Apple to acquire photo/video sharing app […]
Dreamforce, BoxWorks, Arse-Kissing, and Behavioral vs. Attitudinal Loyalty
Not tooo long ago, I was meeting with one of EchoSign’s largest customers. As I was coming, someone else was leaving – Marc Benioff. He’d come (flying private I assume, and possibly straight from Hawaii) to … kiss the customer’s arse, as near as I could tell. The customer already had thousands and thousands of […]
Why Competition Is So Bitter in SaaS: Oligopolies and Dominant Strategy Equilibriums
Perhaps the oddest thing about the Apple-Google “go thermonuclear” strategy to SaaS guys is that it is so odd at all. Competition-to-the-almost-death seems the norm in SaaS. Just look at Larry Ellison or Marc Benioff. You can see the blood lust in their eyes, in every speech, in a way you never really saw/see in […]
Apple iPhone 5 – Meh
The iPhone 5 is breaking all iPhone sales records, another hit on their hands. Or not? I think it’s the beginning on long slide south for Apple. Yes, it is going to sell well. Very well. So why is Apple going to decline? Two very simple irrefutable reasons: What Goes Up Must Come Down, and […]
The Cockroach Theory: Why Little Things Matter (even for Apple)
When I was a young investor, I spent a lot of time listening to the wisdom of the old hands around me, like Don Allen and Curt Kittelson. One of the things they taught me was the Cockroach Theory: Stated simply, the Cockroach Theory is “there’s never just one.” Investors apply the theory to stocks, […]
Has Apple Peaked?
You probably think I am out of my mind – well … hm… no comment. But yes I agree it’s close to madness to discuss Apple’s decline right on the heels of a record-breaking iPhone 5 launch and a stock price that despite some correction is still a rocketship. But bear with me for a […]
It’s a Tablet! It’s a PC! No, it’s a tasty floor wax!
We seem to have reached the stage of tablet evolution where ungainly variations are crawling out of the primordial ooze on a daily basis.Just today, a single Engadget story covered the Sony VAIO Duo 11–a tablet that converts into a laptop via a slid…
