Articles
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Apple the Black Swan
Apple does everything wrong. They don’t do market research. They don’t segment the market with multiple models. They don’t have promotions. They don’t diversify. They don’t have divisions. They don’t have multiple P&Ls. They don’t pursue market share above all else. They don’t take on debt.1 They don’t pay dividends (or big enough ones, now). They…
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Apple, Samsung, and the Parable of the Model-T
Steve Jobs was famously fond of the Henry Ford adage: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” It’s true! New products – new categories – require vision and an unflinching focus on the job to be done (i.e. transport), not simply enhancing or extending solutions that already exist (i.e.…
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Apps, People, and Jobs to Be Done
I read two great interviews tonight, and its the combination of the two that really captures why I’m skeptical about Facebook Home.1 First off was Mark Suster interviewing Clayton Christensen. The interview – as is the case with most things Christensen related – is fascinating and instructive, and well worth a read. However, I want to…
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The iPad and the Disaggregation of Computing
In the 10 days this blog has been online I’ve spent a lot of time on mobile, and understandably so! It’s the biggest business in tech, and the entry point to computing for much of the world. But, like many geeks, it is traditional computers that have always been closest to my heart, and what is…
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Strategy 101 and the Wall Street Journal: A Fisking
The Wall Street Journal has 531 words in a news item about Apple’s plans to start production on a new iPhone in the second quarter. 155 of the words are useful:1 Apple Inc plans to begin production of a refreshed iPhone similar in size and shape to its current one in the second quarter of the…
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Value Chains
The Samsung Galaxy 4 reviews should be rolling in shortly. They will recount the screen, processor, camera, face detection tech — every speed and feed there is will be dissected, discussed, and scored. Said features will be compared, first to the recently released HTC One, and most certainly to the iPhone 5. And most of it…
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Welcome to Stratechery
I don’t know much about sailing. So perhaps it’s not the best analogy with which to launch this blog. But here goes… A simple image. Two boats, and a big ocean. Perhaps it’s a race, and one boat is winning — until it isn’t, of course. Rest assured there is breathless coverage of every twist and…
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Review: Chromebook
After reading this piece by Matt Baxter-Reynolds praising the Chromebook, I bought one just to give it a try. And now, with today’s announcement of the Chromebook Pixel, it’s past time I share my thoughts on the platform. To be perfectly honest…I love it. Hardware I am using the Samsung 11.6″ Wifi model, which has been…
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Apple and the Innovator’s Dilemma
This paper was originally written in 2010 for a Corporate Innovation class at Kellogg Business School, and thus predates Stratechery by several years.