Born into the PC era of neutral browsers and open web opportunity, companies like Facebook now grope for revenues in a new era dominated by harsh platform masters with an “app” access model that forces social networkers into a box.
– Microsoft has $63 billion in cash with which to strengthen its case as a viable third platform vs. iOS and Android. It starts with strength in enterprise but real weakness with consumers. – Ecosystem backlash to a Nokia deal may be
– Google has cash and likes to spend it. The recent past demonstrates a tendency to grow through acquisition with Google having made almost 60 acquisitions since the beginning of 2010 – Google’s cloud ambitions are thwarted by oligopolistic broadband
History says Apple won’t make a big acquisition with its cash hoard, but playing the shopping list game helps to clarify strategic weaknesses and what it might take to fix them. Apple is at a big disadvantage on cloud based
– In retrospect, the right TMT investments between 1980 and 2005 were in PCs, networks, cell phones, and cable TV, with Microsoft and Intel alone generating $425B in shareholder value. – Meanwhile, most leaders in earlier paradigms continued to rally
Data processing architecture has swung like a pendulum, from a centralized mainframe era, to decentralized PCs, and now back to the cloud. Modern cloud data centers feature distributed architectures that share computing and storage resources across widely dispersed locations at
– Amazon slightly missed consensus sales and earnings estimates, barely turning a profit, but sales were up 29% despite the global economic situation. – The story remains intact – low margins because of investment against huge opportunities. E-tail dominance
– 12 month product cycles may be too long given the pace set by the Android eco-system – iPhone sales drop-off now 6 months post release, with new Samsung Galaxy S III now the hot product. – Cutting price on
– Netflix quarterly beat was not enough – increasing programming costs and a reminder that a lot of people will watch the Olympics rather than Netflix for a few weeks slammed the stock. – The rising fees for the
– Microsoft’s 4Q shows the power of Office, Mister Softy’s biggest asset in establishing Windows 8 and Windows Phone as viable 3rd platform vs. Apple and Android. – Google is powering through the recession as online ads take share
