In June of this year, I had one of those incredible experiences working in technology where you see or hear something and know that the world has changed. It happened while I was sitting in bed at home, watching Apple’s WWDC conference, having just finished the developer session on a new framework called iBeacon. Later […]
In mobile, particularly in consumer markets, there has been an ongoing debate about when or if Android will become the first platform that sophisticated startups develop for. Often times, this argument is wrongly centered around vanity metrics for Android such as worldwide shipments or installed base of each platform. The reality is that platform constraints […]
One fascinating benefit of today’s converged hardware / software platforms is how a new technology can be “turned on” via OS upgrades, allowing instant network effects at the platform and ecosystem level. Apple’s iBeacon is a model case for this and below are some thoughts on how new capabilities brought forth in iOS7 have the […]
An alternative title for this piece could be ‘Why Vertically Converged Mobile Platforms Have Won Over Modular’. Over the weekend Ben Thompson wrote an eloquent essay relating the iPhone’s success to disruption theory in mobile / consumer markets. Mobile has always been evolving differently, and 3.5 years ago I wrote a post called The Genius […]
When Apple announced the iPhone 5s last week the biggest mystery was the M7 motion processor—it may have been the only unknown, as other key internals like the fingerprint sensor and possibility of a 64-bit A7 had leaked. This is interesting, showcasing that the component layer is Apple’s last stronghold of total secrecy. The M7 […]
There was a rumor today that the iPhone 5S will be powered by an A7 processor which is dual core, 64-bit and 31% faster than the subsystem in the current iPhone 5. While people speculate on the innards of the chip, it’s a good time to take a step back and look at how Apple approaches […]
There are tons of startup myths out there. To some extent, startups have a mystique that you don’t really understand until you work inside one. And though, as an industry, tech is so forward-thinking and social, unfortunately its echo chamber often drowns out what’s really important. Many key startup learnings simply aren’t shared. This is […]
This video interview is a gem, a very rare find that was donated to the Computer History Museum and posted online in recent years. The full presentation is 24 minutes and well worth watching—YouTube link here. It’s classic Steve Jobs, him talking in hyperbole and attracting laughs and ahh’s from the audience. But it’s a […]
We’ve entered the age of iOS and Android penetrating beyond mobile, and there’s a lot happening with respect to how the entire ecosystem is developing. Mobile advancements / investments are now driving the progression of all converged hardware / software. Hardware innovation is also accelerating because of this tailwind. Here are some thoughts on what’s […]
Here is a three step how-to with deeper explanations on how startups should think about working with brands. It will be different depending on whether you are social, e-commerce, etc. I think the framework applies broadly to many startup business models, mobile apps or web. The tl;dr summary: Understand the relationship between the brand you […]