– The Fire Phone is a bit underwhelming – weak specs, pricey, gimmicky and exclusive to T. AMZN can push it hard, but few users are likely to be moved to replace their iPhones or Androids. – The upfront price
– PCLN’s cash acquisition of OPEN for $2.6B should deliver clear synergies for expanding OPEN into international markets and bundling mobile services with other PCLN properties – PCLN has the resources to stimulate growth and could also lever OPEN’s reservation
TMT: The Advertising Revolution Will NOT Be Televised Since the 2010 recovery, US TV ad spending, adjusted for Olympic/campaign bumps in 2010 and 2012, has been decelerating. The price of a primetime spot has steadily declined, offset by increasing the
– Unlike past years, WWDC ‘14 had no new hardware, just updates to OS X and iOS that filled competitive holes, tightened cross-platform integration, and added support for developers. – The anticipated HealthKit and HomeKit features of iOS8 allow 3rd
Quick Thoughts: TMT heavyweights weigh in at #CodeCon The inaugural CodeCon conference featured big hitters from MSFT, GOOG, AAPL, QCOM, INTC, CMCSA, NFLX, S, CRM, WDAY, TWTR, and WMT, often with real news to announce MSFT’s real time translation, GOOG’s
– Arguments around “net neutrality” are missing the point – in a competitive market for broadband, consumers and content providers wouldn’t need protection from regulators – Cable modem is the ONLY broadband service fast enough for NFLX in 60% of
– This year’s WWDC rumors are kinda meh – a connected home app, “Healthbook”, a minor iOS update, and a significant OS X release – no iPhone6, no iWatch, no new AppleTV box. – A Beats deal could be announced
– Elon Musk expects TSLA to leapfrog the $2T auto industry by offering electric vehicles without performance compromises and radically revamped sales and customer service experiences. – TSLA’s strategy – starting with the high performance segment, investing in a charging
TMT: “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast!” Culture matters. It biases a company’s world-view, it shapes institutional skill sets, and dictates management decisions. When it is aligned with a company’s strategy and the opportunities created by the market, it is a
– T’s DTV deal is old paradigm thinking in the long term, but adds near term upselling opportunities for existing subs, leverage w/ content nets, and an intriguing LatAm play. – “Triple Play” may be played out – the DTV
