The Big Picture |
| Posted: 07 Mar 2015 05:00 PM PST What will happen if I fail your test? Ex Machina | Official Trailer HD | A24 RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2015  |
| Posted: 07 Mar 2015 11:00 AM PST “Gartner: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus drove Apple past Samsung in Q4 worldwide smartphone sales”: bit.ly/1FSBUKu Get rid of the removable battery and microSD card? That’s like kicking out the drummer and the bass player, hard core fans are not going to like that. Tech is not like music. In music it’s about establishing a catalogue of hits so you can tour until you die. The future is important, but it’s about the past even more. In tech if you’re not on the bleeding edge, you’re gonna die, which is what was happening to Apple, it just did not have large enough phones. And it turned out people wanted phablets. Because the whole world is going mobile, that’s where you not only surf and connect, but buy too. It’s like Gary Shteyngart’s “Super Sad True Love Story” come to life. And Apple perfected the smartphone. Let’s not forget, once again, that the Cupertino company was not there first, nor do you have to be, that’s a big story in tech, that the bleeding edge does not often succeed…MySpace was replaced by Facebook and Rhapsody was overtaken by Spotify and the iPhone kicked the BlackBerry and Treo to the curb. And to win it’s not about marketing so much as functionality. If it just works, people will use it. Hell, we’re still fighting this war with television remotes…can someone make a device I can comprehend that will work with all my devices? (Don’t e-mail me your solution, the lack of a clear-cut winner dominating public consciousness speaks to my point.) ANYWAY, Samsung ruled and now it’s an afterthought. Furthermore, by following the crowd they’re drowning the company. Never give up your uniqueness, it’s what adheres people to you. Whether it be the quirky, center console ignition in Saabs or the quirky boxiness of Volvos, the people keeping those brands alive loved those. But, of course, brands are not forever. Especially in tech, where ramp-up costs are smaller. So Samsung triumphed as the anti-Apple, giving people what they wanted and allowing them to give the middle finger to Jobs’s company all the while. But it turns out that’s all they had. There was no there there. Despite being a Korean company, Samsung was positively Detroit, where the exterior counts and the interior is irrelevant. Detroit’s lunch was eaten by the Japanese, who knew that people would drive the ugliest cars if they just worked, and they did, and now Toyota is a juggernaut and if you’re purchasing an American car you must not have gotten the memo or are financially-challenged, because you just have to read “Consumer Reports” to know that the Japanese own reliability. But we’re not looking for reliability in phones. We want functionality and something that lasts for two years, when we upgrade. And Samsung made a phone for all people, some for the cutting edge tinkerers and some for the poor. And now Apple has reclaimed its hold on the high end and Xiaomi has eaten up the low end and Samsung is toast. Because it’s about form not content, design not intellectual property. It’s not so different in the music business. He who writes the songs wins in the end. Sure, ASCAP and BMI are fighting Pandora, but the truth is there’s a ton of money in a hit song still, and it lasts forever. So what did we learn here? What are the translatable elements? Play to your hard core. Never abandon them. Sure, change is hard, but keep what they like and add new features. The Galaxy S6 is a me-too iPhone for people who hate Apple, huh? Content drives everything. It’s not what the phone looks like, but what it can do. Apps come to Apple first. Apple has cutting edge payment technology. Apple integrates all its devices. Apple has a culture, whereas Samsung does not. And it’s culture that keeps your company alive. The music business has focused on the exterior ever since the advent of MTV, when how you looked became the key driver. Funny how almost all of those MTV acts never lasted. But the majors still focus on looks, because it’s easier. And everyone there is brain dead, they don’t want to walk into the wilderness and invent a new paradigm. But look what happened to Samsung, their business fell off a cliff. We’ll find out if the Apple Watch is a success, but give the company credit for not only taking a risk, but one that took years and a fortune to develop. Imagine a music company doing the same. Oh no, you can’t. In content, that’s television. It’s TV that’s telling creators we’ll give you a fortune carte blanche, to do it your own way. But the barrier to entry is so low in music! Why haven’t we seen revolution? Because when everybody can play, the rich and talented stay out. Microsoft is getting killed in phones. Google too. You go where the people are not. Instead, in the music business we’ve got wannabes yelling about their substandard wares muddying the marketplace, causing the public to ignore the sphere or pay attention to the usual suspects. And isn’t it interesting that so many ignore what is supposedly so popular. Not only is Beyonce not that big, but neither is Kanye. As for the press lauding their efforts and puffing them up, these are the same people who kept telling us about the Korean miracle. but that’s the newspapers, constantly reporting on what has happened, not what will be. Apple is not forever. Nothing is forever. Success is about knowing where you’ve been and marching into the wilderness at the same time. Hell, look at our dearly-departed hero Steve Jobs. He lost Apple, foundered at NeXT and then returned triumphantly at Apple, but not immediately, the prognosticators still said the enterprise was going to go bankrupt or be sold. These same people today tell us about BlackBerry’s chances. It’s over. What next, the Doobie Brothers topping the pop chart? Good ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is so much harder. Marrying the two is incredibly difficult. Samsung had excellent execution and lame ideas. Furthermore, they were beholden to Google for software, which is akin to not writing your own songs. Apple won by matching great ideas with incredible execution. And, over time, they’ve established a fanbase. Sure, the naysayers and media want to tear them down, but there were people who hated the Beatles in the sixties. You never react, you just go your own way. And you’ve got to give Tim Cook credit for this, he never caved into the media, never mind so many on Wall Street who wanted his head. So we’ll all have mobile devices. Hell, we already do. So what’s next? That’s how you win. Knowing what’s next. Samsung has been a me-too company from its inception. They made better flat panels than Sony and bigger handsets than Apple. But innovation is not spoken there. Once upon a time the music business was like tech. The best and the brightest challenging convention. But now it’s the dumbest of the dumb, sheeple who do what the mercenary fat cats tell them to while those with any purchase keep bitching their cheese has moved. No wonder it’s seen as a second-class scene, without a truly triumphant product, one that everyone clamors to based on its innovation and quality, it’s toast. But you just can’t say that. Because everybody remembers what once was and is waiting for those days to return. But they’re never coming back. Samsung is screwed, on the high end and low. Its only chance is to break new ground, but it’s seemingly unable to, remember the company’s disastrous smartwatch? Remember the rest of the album from the artist with the hit single? Neither do I. ~~~ –  |
| Posted: 07 Mar 2015 07:00 AM PST This week, the "Masters in Business" radio podcast features Michelle Meyer, North American Economist for Bank America Merrill Lynch. Meyer was also named to Forbes list of “30 under 30 in finance.” In our podcast, Michelle discusses the current economic cycle, what makes this recovery so different, and what has been missing. We also chatted about more personal issues: What it was like being at Lehman Brothers in the midst of the financial crisis and the firm’s bankruptcy. We also discuss the challenges facing women in what has been a male dominated profession, and what a day in the life is like at a big firm for an economist. Listen to the podcast live here, on Bloomberg, Apple iTunes or SoundCloud. All of our prior podcasts are now available on iTunes. Next week, we speak with Brad Katsuyama of IEX who is probably best known to the public for his role in Michael Lewis’ book Flash Boys. |
| Posted: 07 Mar 2015 03:00 AM PST Welcome to the weekend, and the beginning of the end of Winter. To celebrate, pour yourself a strong cup of coffee, and enjoy our long-form Saturday morning reads:
Be sure to check out this week’s Masters in Business. which features BAML’s North American Economist Michelle Meyer.
Number of ultra-rich swells to almost 173,000
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