Wednesday 4 September 2013

Ronald Coase: RIP

Ronald Coase: RIP; Nobel Prize winner who explored why companies exist - http://FT.com

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Why would competitors welcome a new Gorilla?

The market for streaming radio just got more crowded as Apple announce iTunes Radio at WDC. But VentureBeat has collected statements from other players in the smart radio space and they seem to welcome the move. What's the logic behind their relaxed view towards a competitive Gorilla? (link)

If you were in any doubt that Apple products are market infrastructures...

...then consider the fact that Apple has paid out over $10Bn to App Store developers since 2008! (link) With this in mind do you think iOS developers are happy with the deal in that they are dealing with: a proprietary platform, closed garden ecosystem, App vetting, fee sharing with Apple, limited tool sets, platform rules for design elements, platform rules about content etc.

Is this the future of manufacturing (long tail economics)

Amazon enters the custom build space by selling 3D printers and supplies.
What is the potential for 3D printing services and custom products as a marketplace... (link).
Consider CustomMade (link), is this a niche for R&D, proof of concept, or prototyping? If so then what are does the 3D printing market look like? Does the supplier offset the fixed asset costs of the workshop and printer by limiting itself to aspiring designers who value access to skills and capabilities they cannot possess?
Consider the variable costs that a larger supplier can hide from customers; things like shipping charges, energy consumption, data storage, access to raw materials, etc. How low can the costs go for custom fabrication? Perhaps the custom maker should stay small and keep its fixed costs low?

Digital currency has its own rules

Some things you need to know about Bitcoins (link). Now, considering the that issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network (can I make some in my own lab?) and that it works via a peer-to-peer service operating with no central authority... Are these bad things or can we live with them? It doesn't seem like a fiat currency so might it be better than a currency produced by a central bank that can engage in UMTs and monetary easing (printing paper)?

Links between physical and digital services have value

Google snapping up Waze to retain mapping services capability (link)

Saturday 8 June 2013

Second hand games?

"Xbox One [is designed] to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail ... Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios." Microsoft's director of programming, Larry Hryb, June 2013

Microsoft has now said that games can be traded in, but only at "participating retailers".

Games can be freely passed on to friends, but only once - "There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once."

Friday 24 May 2013

e-books pricing, Steve Jobs email to James Murdoch

 (document form the US DoJ e-book price fixing case against Apple)


Wednesday 22 May 2013

"The tax code has not kept up with the digital age ..."
Tim Cook, CEO Apple Inc., May 21st 2013

The full paragraph is as follows: Under the current U.S. corporate tax system, it would be very expensive to repatriate that cash. Unfortunately, the tax code has not kept up with the digital age. The tax system handicaps American corporations in relation to our foreign competitors who don’t have such constraints on the free flow of capital.