The Great Tech War Of 2012 • Hacker News Board

Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012

#41

Post by rdl » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 11:28 PM UTC

Silhouette wrote: post #32

johnyzee wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP also failed to mention Amazon's little side business, AWS. More than anything else, AWS makes Amazon one of the most visionary and capable companies in the world to me, before even getting into rolling out Kindle and pretty much creating the e-book market overnight.

I didn't forget to mention Android; which other mobile OS did anyone think I meant? As for AWS, you hit the nail on the head: I think it's Amazon's little side business. I haven't seen any detailed figures about where their income comes from, but I'm guessing AWS is almost lost in the noise compared to what they make on retail directly and via their marketplace. Moreover, I think cloud services is a much easier marke…

Amazon's core business has huge revenue numbers but really crap margins. They're walmart.

AWS, while a much smaller revenue number, has crazy margins compared to retailing. That makes it interesting out of proportion to percentage of revenue, especially if you believe the cloud will continue to grow.

Same thing with Kindle -- vertical integration, and capturing margin along the way, using their huge retail footprint.

Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012

#42

Post by 0x12 » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 11:32 PM UTC

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #10

Apple doesn't believe that niche exists [the 7" tablet], but you can bet it will if the Kindle Fire succeeds. I hear this a lot, and I always think it discredits the authors analysis of Apple. Apple doesn't think there is a product worth making at 7", which is far different than there not being a market. Apple also thought Netbooks weren't worth making (worst of both worlds). That didn't mean there wasn't a market or…

> They create the products that they think are perfect.

They create those products that they believe will make them the most money.

No apple product ever built past or present was 'perfect' when it was released, but it was more than good enough and typically a notch or two above the competition with an associated price tag.

Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012

#43

Post by 0x12 » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 11:36 PM UTC

alexgartrell wrote: post #18

jobu wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Facebook may have momentum (700M+ users), but it has terrible ratings from users[1] and developers[2] alike. I will be very surprised if they are a major contender five years from now. [1] - http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-webs-worst-custome... [2] - http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/11/facebook-wins-worst-api-in-...

800M+ monthly active users, actually [0] This isn't an argument for our continued relevance or anything, just fixing your figure :) [0] http://www.scribbal.com/2011/09/facebook-now-has-800-million...

For almost 4 months it looked like Facebook might unseat google as the #1 site on the web, in spite of their claimed growth in 'active users' Facebook has not been able to take the top spot, and the weekend swap (when google and facebook would temporarily exchange places as #1 and #2) is no longer happening.

Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012

#44

Post by redthrowaway » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 11:54 PM UTC

redthrowaway wrote: post #24

Silhouette wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all the hype etc, I'm not sure how much any of these companies have really done that is worthy of positive attention for several years now. They obviously have a few big hits, but they all have at least as many failures and/or obvious competitive weaknesses. Apple have no doubt moved or effectively created entire markets and business models over the years. The iPod, iPhone and iPad have changed consumption patter…

>Google has a search engine, an e-mail service, a video sharing service, and a much more successful advertising model built around them. You're forgetting Android. There are some other services I would include in with their top-tier ones (maps being a good example), but the omission of Android is fairly glaring.

Seeing as I can't edit anymore, I'll note that I was incorrect in stating that the parent forgot about android.

Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012

#45

Post by ihateSJCS » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 12:19 AM UTC

exit wrote: post #19

> Zuckerberg is even maturing into a capable presenter. Compared to Bezos, Cook, and Page, he's most adept at mimicking Jobs's singular skills, and comes off as infectiously visionary when unveiling a new product. really?

Like it or not, Zuckerberg is a better presenter than Steve Jobs.