Network Effect

Apple's Walmart Deal Will Effectively Kill Google's Android

Anyone who thinks that sitting and waiting in this game is an acceptable strategy is missing the point. The entire business model centers on the ecosystem around the phone. The cell phone itself is just the trojan horse to the customer, or gateway to the ecosystem. The key is to develop the self-perpetuating cycle between buyer and seller within the ecocystem. The more people that have these phones, the more companies need to sell / develop products and services for the ecosystem. If Android doesn't have any customers, why would people keep developing for it. Look at Google Base and Google Wallet. These are free - but no one buys through them so early adopters just give up and the spiral starts the other way. The whole key, as evidenced by Ma Bell, MSFT, eBay, PayPal and a whole host of other networks that dominate their industry is the network effect of the ecosystem around their business. Apple won this game a long time ago. This will be yet another area where Google tries to win against an 800 pound gorilla and fails miserably.

RIMM: In Motion for Share Price Collapse

Does anyone need any more evidence that Apple is crushing it?

Exploiting the Downside of the Markets

he's short already, and he wants people to sell him the stock so he can buy it from them at these levels.

RIM Faces a Critical Month As Apple Gets Tough

Does anyone find it interesting that RIM launched the Bold in the US on election day? Seems like an excuse for why people aren't lining up for the Bold to me.

Research in Motion's Storm: Why It Matters

couldn't agree with your final statement. this is make or break for rimm. if they can't show traction on these new product lines, RIMM will need to be bought to survive. my guess is that iPhone is going to lay waste to any competition like the iPod - it's the ecosystem that is the moat around the iPhone, like iTunes around the iPod. but like with iTunes, it is going to be very difficult for anyone to gain any traction because the iPhone and the AppStore already exist and have a huge head start. RIMM will be bought by MSFT, GOOG or HP within 6-18 months. and even then, the combination of the two wont be able to compete with Apple. this game is over already. Apple has just won a very, very big revenue stream of the future. next industry to go down ... video games. maybe this Xmas. again, the ecosystem will prevail. and Nintendo, Sony et al will be playing catch up to an rapidly growing ecosystem like with iTunes and AppStore.

Google Phone: "Dream Phone" Might Be a Little Strong

folks, take a cue from the Kindle hype, the Bold hype, and all the other iPhone Killers hype, if you don't see numbers, they're not selling. Android will be thrown into the war chest of things that Google tries and fails at because they think they can do anything. their hubris is their biggest achilles heel. but that's not just Google. all the titans failed when they got too big, because they were no longer nimble and they had been drinking their own KoolAid too long.

Despite Drop, RIMM's Valuation Still Too High

I agree with you Mark. The sense that I get is that RIMM is losing and there are a lot of longs in the momentum group looking for an uptick to unwind. Not to say that RIMM's sales will plummet, but I think the picture will become clearer to everybody over the next couple months that RIMM is not on a par with Apple and will be passed soon. Although Apple's technology is "cool", it's really the ecosystem around the iPhone that will differentiate it and create a moat around it ala eBay, Microsoft, PayPal and various other networks. The switching costs away from the iPhone will become higher and higher as more and more companies tie in - these things are like snowballs rolling down a hill - the bigger they get, the harder it is to stop it rolling down the hill. So, it appears to me that the momentum guys that are long RIMM are jumping on the lack of clear data at this point in the game to get one last uptick before they unwind. Time will tell. Fast Money keeps running spoof ads of hearing the sounds of crickets outside of a PALM Centro launch. It will be interesting to see if there are any lines for the BBerry Bold. I would not be surprised if the 5 hour lines outside of Apple's stores 2+ weeks after launch might be the delay in the Bold. However, RIMM is a great company so they may come up with something that changes the game a bit. But it's also possible that the Kindle will catch on too - I just don't think that it's going to happen.

Apple's $199 iPhone Is a Game-Changer

AppleSauc said it best ... "the iPhone is not a phone at all". exactly, it's a trojan horse to build a network from which Apple can generate limitless revenue streams. the first example of this is the fact that AT&T is paying people $200 to buy the iPhone and use their network because they are making $90 / month on each user so they pay it off in 2 months. the iPhone is a network, not a phone. and Apple, and a whole host of other companies are going to generate countless revenue streams from it.

Apple's $199 iPhone Is a Game-Changer

seems like more and more people are finally starting to get a glimpse of the massive possibilities with the iPhone. 100M next year seems about right - once global adoption is blessed so phones are no longer unlocked, this will explode even more than it has already. And once they build the ecosystem around the iPhone, it's game over. There will be a lot of companies that Apple will steamroll over once they build the ecosystem. Even Mr. Softy one day if they play their cards right. The student has become the teacher, grasshopper.