Continue Betting on Facebook

I was a (relatively) early adopter to FourSquare.  Today FourSquare has over 10M users and I was one of the first two percent (#197,372). I’ve also written about FourSquare here. FourSquare does several things well. The discounts and offerings associated with checking-in have always worked for me and with recent updates they’ve improved the experience.  […]

What to Expect from the Moto Acquisition

The big news in tech today was of course Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility.  Google dipped into it’s roughly $39 billion in cash and agreed to pay $12.5 billion (or $40/share) – a 60+ percent premium over Friday’s close. You can read some of the coverage here: Google’s blog post on the acquisition, TechCrunch, TechCocktail, […]

Are Multi-function Devices Killing Single Purpose Devices?

IHS iSuppli recently projected sluggish growth for single-purpose consumer tech devices like MP3 players, PNDs, and digital cameras.  At the same time they expect multi-function devices like smartphones and tablets to enjoy strong double-digit growth over the same horizon The IHS iSuppli statement quotes, Jordan Selburn as saying, The success of multipurpose electronic equipment, often coming […]

Understanding “Mobile” Shopping

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported on a study by Forrester.  The key finding: “Even though just 9 percent of shoppers own tablets, sales from tablets already account for 20 percent of mobile e-commerce sales and 60 percent of tablet owners have used them to shop.”  Certainly tablets are set to have a disruptive impact […]

Amazon’s (Eventual) Tablet

I’ve written in the past about Amazon’s (eventual) entry into the tablet world.  Some interesting research from Retrevo consistent with points I’ve made in the past. First, consumers have grown quickly comfortable with Amazon as an OEM. You’ll recall that the original Kindle was panned heavily by critics, but consumers have warmed quickly to Amazon devices. As you can […]

Toys“R”Us Picks-up Kindle

At the end of the month, Toys“R”Us will begin selling Amazon’s Kindle (see Retailing Today, Mashable, Reuters, LA Times). This is a natural extention of its existing non-Amazon retail strategy (which already includes Target, Best Buy, RadioShack and AT&T stores). More importantly, I think it targets an important segment of the population primed for an […]

The Value of Freemium

Some facinating findings in some recently released data from Furry: Games drive 75% of revenue among the top 100 grossing iOS apps and 65% of this revenue were generated from freemium games. The average purchase from within free-to-play mobile game is $14 As the chart shows, 71% of all in-app transactions happing within freemium games are for amounts under $10, 16% are […]

Bullish on Apple? Bullish on China

One can’t help but be bullish – at least a tinge – on both Apple and China.  From a recent NYT article: Last week, Apple reported blockbuster sales and profits in its third quarter, including $3.8 billion in revenue in greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong. For the first three quarters of Apple’s fiscal […]

How Might Apple iPad Shipments Change Over the Next Year

Much has been written about the relationship between iPad supply and demand.  I’ve added to that discussion here. What I haven’t seen discussed much is how iPad sales might change now that supply and demand are finding equilibrium. As I wrote, I don’t believe supply constraints have defined aggregate unit volume.  But I do think it might have influenced […]