Last week, my wife and I spent a few days in France. We flew a low-cost carrier (Transavia, whose perky branding almost makes you forget that you’ll be charged $2.50 for bottled water), but being in the airport reminded me of the popularity of, and excitement around, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. In fact, El Al, Israel’s … Continue reading Planes and Processors
This morning, I read up on Snapchat’s dismal earnings — their first report as a public company. They lost $2.2 billion, with more than one-third of that amount spent on R&D — a testament to the fact that the company knows that there is no such thing as a technological moat, not with Facebook snapping at its heels, and so … Continue reading Snapchat Stories
Via the WSJ: “A Chinese technology giant, whose telecom networking equipment is shut out of the U.S. due to security concerns, is bringing its high-end smartphone to American consumers for the first time…Targeting the low-end segment, where margins are thin, doesn’t fit well with Huawei’s attempt to move upscale and sell more expensive phones. “The … Continue reading It’s Hard to Be a Mid-Market Phonemaker
The other day, I left the house and went on an invigorating ten-mile run. I log my runs pretty religiously – usually on MapMyRun, though that day I happened to use Strava – and have kept a close watch on my mileage since I started seriously running in 2013. And so I know with certainty that … Continue reading 4,000 Miles
The Wall Street Journal reported the other day that news email subscription TheSkimm is rolling out a paid premium service. For some industries – mainly tech, politics, and news – the emergence of the email newsletter as the product has proved successful, with brands like CB Insights, Mattermark, and others using newsletters as either the crux of their product … Continue reading Email Blast from the Past
My guess is that, in the wake of Tesla’s enormous, $3 billion pre-order frenzy last week, Ford’s PR team scrambled to get flattering coverage of their own efforts, seeking to be cast in the same Silicon Valley light reserved for tech companies. A recent article in The New York Times speaks to that effort: Over the past year, Ford … Continue reading The Mobility Company
Slate has a long, well thought-out piece on NPR’s digital challenges and opportunities. Namely, NPR seems to be moving slowly as lots of other competitors – especially NPR veterans who’ve left the organization – roll out newer, more exciting audio programming: The debate also raised an even thornier and as-yet-unanswered question: What is the value of … Continue reading NPR’s Digital Challenges and Opportunities
