Apple Versus Google
In the past two weeks, executives from both Apple and Google have taken the stage at the Moscone Center, in San Francisco, to pump up their troops, their developer corps, and the media. What struck me...
View ArticleThe Long History of the Fight Against Uber
Most people know the story of the Luddites, but it is still a tale worth repeating, especially in light of recent protests over Uber. Luddites were skilled artisans and other laborers in...
View ArticleWhy Companies Won’t Learn From the T-Mobile/Experian Hack
Last Thursday, John Legere, the C.E.O. of T-Mobile, joined the ranks of the dozens of chief executives who, in the past few years, have had to inform their customers that their personal information has...
View ArticleJack in a Box: Can Twitter Be Saved?
Earlier this month, Twitter announced that it was bringing back one of its co-founders, Jack Dorsey, as C.E.O., to steady the tilting ship and find a way forward for one of the most beloved,...
View ArticleIn Silicon Valley Now, It’s Almost Always Winner Takes All
In September, 2014, after investing in a ride-sharing company called Sidecar, Richard Branson declared that it was “early days and, like a lot of other commodity businesses, there is room for...
View ArticleThe Man Who Once Made San Franciscans Look Good
I was still in my mother’s womb when Wilkes Bashford, a man with two last names, infinite elegance, and a Victorian idea of customer service, opened the doors to his temple of high fashion, endless...
View ArticleIn the Future, We Will Photograph Everything and Look at Nothing
“Today everything exists to end in a photograph,” Susan Sontag wrote in her seminal 1977 book “On Photography.” This was something I thought about when I recently read that Google was making its...
View ArticleWhy Apple Music Is So Bad When the iPhone Is So Good
On April 28, 2003, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store, saving the music industry from the scourge of piracy while creating a large and steady source of revenue for Apple. Thirteen years later,...
View ArticleTony Fadell, Nest, and the Failure of a Middle Ground
Tony Fadell is an uncompromising product-design guy who knows how to tell a story. The best story he ever told was about the world’s most boring product—the thermostat—and how a mundane dial to turn...
View ArticleFacebook’s News Feed: Often Changed, Never Great
Facebook’s announcement this week that it would tweak its news feed felt all too familiar: Facebook makes changes, people howl, fortunes are lost, Facebook gets stronger. But then Facebook reconsiders...
View ArticlePokémon Go Will Make You Crave Augmented Reality
It started as an April Fool’s joke. Google released a funny video that mashed up Google Maps and Pokémon. The video, released on April 1, 2014, went viral, drawing more than eighteen million views in...
View ArticleDoes the Snapchat Generation Even Know What Yahoo Is?
The $4.8-billion acquisition of Yahoo—the brand and its Internet properties—by a telephone company, Verizon, is a watershed moment in the history of the Internet. It caps off an era—Web 1.0, for lack...
View ArticleApple, Google, Amazon, and the Advantages of Bigness
At some point in a big, successful company’s life, it comes up against the problem of the law of large numbers. In the simplest terms, a fast-growing company can’t keep growing at the same fast rate...
View ArticleThe Hype—and Hope—of Artificial Intelligence
Earlier this month, on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver skewered media companies’ desperate search for clicks. Like many of his bits, it became a viral phenomenon, clocking in at nearly...
View ArticleWith the iPhone 7, Apple Changed the Camera Industry Forever
Camera companies, like traditional phone manufacturers, dismissed the iPhone as a toy when it launched, in 2007. Nokia thought that the iPhone used inferior technology; the camera makers thought that...
View ArticleApple, Samsung, and Good Design—Inside and Out
Apple’s design prowess, long celebrated—even venerated—has taken some nasty hits since the release of the iPhone 7. Technology watchers have been dismissive. “Apple has squandered its once-commanding...
View ArticleSilicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum
Silicon Valley seems to have lost a bit of its verve since the Presidential election. The streets of San Francisco—spiritually part of the Valley—feel less crowded. Coffee-shop conversations are...
View ArticleApple and Google Battle over Personalization and Privacy
Om Malik on Google’s and Apple’s ecosystems. They look a little different, but they are meant to do pretty much the same thing.
View ArticleThe Long History of the Fight Against Uber
Om Malik on the protests over Uber in Paris.
View ArticleWhy Companies Won’t Learn From the T-Mobile/Experian Hack
Om Malik on the latest data breach, involving T-Mobile and Experian.
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