Android or iPhone? Wrong Question. January 5, 2010: January 5, 2010: [Follow Me on Twitter] In a recent New York Times article, Kathryn Huberty, a Morgan Stanley analyst was quoted suggesting that Apple’s iPhone is the key catalyst for an important new technology trend. “Applications make the smartphone trend a revolutionary trend – one we haven’t seen in consumer technology for many years.” This argument rings true in that the “after iPhone” smartphone market is dramatically more interesting than the “pre-iPhone” smartphone market. Later, Ms. Huberty made an even bolder statement, “The iPhone is something different. Many analysts and bloggers have worked hard to position “iPhone vs. When Apple launched the iPhone, it was able to secure an unprecedentedly strong business relationship with AT&T. With the iPhone’s massive success, it would be hard in retrospect to challenge the thinking behind Apple’s business model choice. All of this is now history. This is why the two products do not compete head to head.
How the Apple iPhone ecosystem works. This past February an excitable Belgian software executive named Bart Decrem and a quiet Australian ex-McKinsey consultant named Andrew Lacy had an epiphany. A few months earlier, in November, Steve Jobs had said Apple (AAPL) eventually would allow software developers to write programs for the company's elegant iPhone. Jobs didn't say when, and he didn't share details of how Apple would work with outsiders. But it was an exciting prospect because cell-phone makers don't typically allow anybody but their phone-company customers to place software on phones.
By February Decrem and Lacy realized that independent hackers already were finding ways to break into the iPhone and insert their own applications. That day turned out to be July 10, when Apple debuted its App Store with much fanfare. It has become cliche to note that Apple is revolutionizing the mobile phone business. Boasts Decrem: "That means we are a whole new distribution channel for music. " Google’s SOE (Strategy of Everything) As a Venture Capitalist, I occasionally hear entrepreneurs lay out a Strategy of Everything, a plan to be all things to all people. (SOE rhymes with TOE, the Theory of Everything, the Holy Grail of mathematical physics, only less attainable than the sacred object…) In practice, “all things to all people” invariably becomes too many different services in too many market segments.
“We don’t know what will work or for whom, so we’ll spray and pray. We’ll shoot arrows in the dark and when the sun rises, we’ll paint a target around the one that lands in a good spot. We’ll declare victory and raise a second round while claiming that this had been our strategy all along.” VCs hate SOE. It’s a grand way to waste large amounts of capital.
From this perspective, Google’s strategy doesn’t make sense: They, indeed, are trying to be all things to all people. Google’s product line adopts a similar look: So: Is this the type of SOE I just made fun of? Yes and no. Let’s look at it from another angle. It's Official: Google Is Now a Hardware Company. Last August, Google (GOOG) Chief Executive Officer Larry Page fulfilled a pledge made to one of his senior executives, a square-jawed former attorney named Dennis Woodside. Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook had been trying to poach Woodside to make him Apple’s head of sales; Google had persuaded him to stay, in part by promising him a bigger job, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, but who asked not to be named because the discussions were private. Now it was time to make good.
Woodside says he was speaking with board member K. Ram Shriram when Page asked him to run Motorola Mobility, the company Google had just announced it was acquiring for $12.5 billion. “He said, ‘I know you’ve been looking for a challenge,’ ” Woodside recalls. “ ‘I want you to run Motorola. I think you’d be great at it. Woodside agreed and is now the leader of one of the most storied names in technology. None of those accomplishments had the degree of difficulty that comes with Woodside’s new mandate. Warren Buffett on castles and moats. Tyler Gaul • Tech Horoscopes, 2012. Apple Just Demonstrated Its New iOS Map System. Siri Is About To Learn A Bunch Of New Tricks. Apple Really Is Going To Try To Kill Google. (20) Apple Inc.: Is Apple really going to try and kill Google. Citigroup: Amazon plotting smartphone to challenge Apple's iPhone in 2012. By Josh Ong Not content with entering just the tablet market, Amazon is planning to release a smartphone in the fourth quarter of next year, in a move that will challenge Apple and its bread-and-butter iPhone, says one analyst.
Citigroup's Mark Mahaney issued a note to investors saying that, according to the supply chain, the online retailer is planning on releasing a smartphone in time for next year's holiday season, as noted byAllThingsD. “Based on our supply chain channel checks in Asia led by Kevin Chang, Citi’s Taipei-based hardware research analyst, we believe an Amazon Smartphone will be launched in 4Q12," the note read. According to the analyst, the device will be jointly developed with Foxconn. Amazon will reportedly pay non-recurring engineering fees to the manufacturer, but the phone and some of its components will be manufactured by the same Hon Hai TMS group that works on Amazon's Kindle e-readers and a rumored 8.9-inch tablet. A Facebook smartphone? Why? « Science Technology Informer. Apple unveils new Maps app in iOS 6. In what's surely a shot across Google's bow, Apple has unveiled its own Maps app for iOS 6, dropping Google Maps.
With over 100 million business listings, integrated Yelp support, and an in-progress traffic service, the new Maps app completely sidesteps Google's services, "redesigned from the ground up" according to Apple. The new traffic service will include anonymous, real-time, crowd-sourced incident reports -- no more getting stuck on the freeway behind an hour's worth of rubberneckers. It also features turn-by-turn navigation, a first for the Maps app. Traffic reporting can offer real-time rerouting based on current conditions, potentially a huge time-saver. Navigation works right from the lock screen, and the new maps app has integrated Siri support, allowing you to find gas stations and other services just by asking for them.
A new feature called Flyover brings long-rumored 3D navigation for several cities worldwide. The new Maps app will be an iOS 6 exclusive. iOS 6: On partners and partings, sources and sinks, and the dreaded word "open" | PUII Information Blog. Posted by max at June 12th, 2012 At yesterday’s keynote to the 2012 WWDC conference, Apple made a number of simultaneous moves in its global chess game with partners and rivals.
Let’s try and unpack what we can of Apple’s overall strategy by analyzing the tactical choices it has made. The biggest loser from yesterday’s announcement, clearly, was Google: the new Maps app will bite into Google’s traffic and revenues. Mobile is a huge growth area for search, and “where am I and what is near me” is clearly a crucial part of that. Make no mistakes, though: this isn’t a black-and-white win for users. Apple has much to prove here, even with the cooperation of license provider TomTom. Street View could be more problematic for Apple, though, as Google clearly owns all the data outright. I’ve seen a few comments along the lines of “of course Apple cut Google out; Apple doesn’t like to depend on others” but that line of reasoning ignores that there were also winners in the keynote.
Wrap up. The Freight Train That Is Android. March 24, 2011: March 24, 2011: [Follow Me on Twitter] “People get ready, there’s a train a comin’” - The Impressions From Zacks via Yahoo: Mark Vickery, On Thursday March 24, 2011, 4:58 pm EDT “BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (NasdaqGS: RIMM – News) beat its fiscal 4Q EPS estimates by 2 cents per share, but missed slightly on quarterly revenues and offered guidance well below the current consensus. This has sent RIMM shares down nearly 10% in after-market trading…” Yesterday, after the market closed, Research in Motion, the makers of the Blackberry device, announced that they would be lowering their current quarter earnings due to lower average sales prices. Despite all that has been written about Android, as well as its unquestionable early success, the world at large still doesn’t fully appreciate the raw power of this juggernaut.
One of Warren Buffet’s most famous quotes is that “In business, I look for economic castles protected by unbreachable ‘moats’.” Firefox a handsome fee. Google and Samsung have a game plan to both get money from Apple. As if the fact that Samsung – Apple’s main supplier of processors, displays and flash memory chips – has been struggling to fend off Apple’s legal blows wasn’t enough, a new report out today has it that the maker of Galaxy smartphones and tablets is joining forces with Google as both firms seek to pressure Apple into a cross-licensing deal, with Cupertino paying both Samsung and Google to settle ongoing patenting woes. If anything, Google openly supporting Samsung in the courtroom suggests nervousness on the part of both technology giants, especially as the latter has recently suffered a pair of legal setbacks concerning devices running Androids software, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the thriving Android ecosystem… The Korea Times, a pro-Samsung publication, has the story: A U.S. court recently ruled to block the sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphones, which were designed in collaboration with Google.
Makes you wonder what’s next: a suit over this? Here’s what Google becoming a handset maker means for Apple. Earlier today, Google CEO Larry Page took to company blog to break the big news: having obtained necessary approvals from watchdogs on both side of the Atlantic, the search giant has finally closed its $12.5 billion acquisition of the ailing handset maker Motorola Mobility in a move meant to “supercharge the Android ecosystem”. The transaction will close by May 23 and is rumored to see Google laying off up to one-third of Motorola staff. Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha is stepping down (not unexpected) and will be replaced by Dennis Woodside whom Apple tried to poach last year.
The new CEO already promised “fewer, bigger bets”, meaning Motorola should streamline its portfolio to focus on a select few hero devices. So, Googlerola is alive and the search giant is now officially a handset maker – one sitting on an enormous pile of patents. In fact, the search Goliath is now in a position to directly fight Apple’s allegations against Android makers. And how do we know Google means business? Make sense? Samsung has Google's backing in fight against Apple. By Kim Yoo-chul The intellectual property battle between Samsung Electronics and Apple may have hit a turning point as the Korean company now appears to have the support of Google, which competes with Apple for supremacy in mobile operating systems (MOS).
Samsung and Google have a productive partnership in the technology sector. The former is now the world’s leading provider of mobile phones and the flagship maker of devices based on the latter’s MOS, which represents the industry’s best attempt to topple Apple’s consumer smartphone leadership. Google being dragged into the bitter fight between Samsung and Apple was all too predictable. A U.S. court recently ruled to block the sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphones, which were designed in collaboration with Google. This is the first time Samsung confirmed it is getting help from Google in its legal battle with Apple. After suffering back-to-back setbacks in the U.S., Samsung needs all the help it can get in its showdown with Apple.