Last week’s acquisition of Palm by HP makes a clear statement: HP recognizes we are at the beginning of the end of the classical PC era — and we’re witnessing the birth of a new generation, really personal computers, currently called smartphones (and tablets). HP doesn’t want to be left behind, as it has been [...]
Let’s pause and look at trends that have emerged over the last few years: How will they affect the digital newsmedia industry? First, we’ll try and list a few undisputed facts. Then we’ll drift towards conclusions bordering the uncharted territory of predictions. It’s worth the risk. The web fuel problem. The internet economic engine isn’t [...]
February 28, 2010 – 1:48 pm
New world, new approaches. Australia is a vibrant, younger economy. You can feel it everywhere. It moves on, it changes, it adapts. And, in the media business, it seems to adjust pretty fast. Fairfax Digital is, by far, the leading online group in Australia and in the region. It is a division of Fairfax Media [...]
February 28, 2010 – 1:48 pm
Microsoft is doing the right thing: at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, two weeks ago, Steve Ballmer hit the reset button and announced an entirely new smartphone OS, Windows Phone 7 Series. This is fundamentally better than flogging yet another ‘’new and improved’’ rev of the aging, failing Windows Mobile (née Windows CE) platform. [...]
January 31, 2010 – 5:20 pm
For a large part, the Apple tablet was seen as a potential solution for the media industry problem: a digital infrastructure for delivery and transactions encompassing a vast array of media products — instantiated in a device destined to become a de facto standard. Many blame the media industry for not being able to come [...]
November 15, 2009 – 6:36 pm
Our App is up and running. You can download it here. Now you can read the Monday Note on your iPhone, store stories, even, if you are offline. In addition to the weekly Monday Note, you’ll get a daily QuickNote, short bursts of news with links to relevant stories and documents. – At launch, the [...]
September 6, 2009 – 10:07 pm
Before I jump into the topic, you might want to know: Why do we, venture investors, care about the debate? Is this another case of financially comfortable people getting in touch with their inner left-winger? I can’t answer for the deeper layers of my psyche, I’ve given up on such explorations. All I can say [...]
This is the speech (in French) by Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis Groupe at a conference organized by the French Association of Magazine Publishers April 6, 2009. A quite insightful talk. discours-maurice-levy-appm-6-avril-2009 (texte en Français)
April 26, 2009 – 12:55 pm
4:00am. I find myself reading an interesting story covering Portfolio’s web site – on my iPhone. As sleep comes back, I reflexively reach for the “save” (for later reading) button that is on every iPhone news application. But I am reading from the magazine’s site, as opposed to running an app on my smartphone; web [...]
April 26, 2009 – 12:55 pm
Today, let’s have a little fun with Microsoft’s latest attempt at countering Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign. Their premise is simple: for the same amount of computing power you pay more for a Mac, you pay an Apple Tax. As Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, puts it: You pay $500 to slap an Apple logo on [...]
