Topic: Hardware
Pixel ‘demand is exceeding supply’ at Verizon stores: Wave7 – FierceWireless (Jan 16, 2017)
I’ve spoken to Jeff Moore, the head of Wave7 Research, multiple times, and he’s very good at what he does, so I trust these numbers in general terms. As usual with supply shortages, there’s the question of whether the crunch is coming on the demand or supply side – in this case, it seems likely that Google was simply very cautious in its planning here and has an unexpected hit on its hands with demand it now can’t quickly fulfill. I like Google’s new hardware – both the Pixel and Home are good devices that do their jobs well, and the Daydream is also a much more user friendly version of the mobile VR concept than the Samsung Gear VR, so I expect these products to do well, though the Pixel in particular will be hamstrung by not just these supply shortages but its lack of carrier distribution beyond Verizon. Look for signs of strong sales in Alphabet’s earnings soon too.
via Pixel ‘demand is exceeding supply’ at Verizon stores: Wave7 | FierceWireless
Andy Rubin Nears His Comeback, Complete With an ‘Essential’ Phone – Bloomberg (Jan 13, 2017)
Andy Rubin, the creator of Android and its leader at Google for many years, is now apparently about to get back into the smartphone business, or more accurately into the ecosystem business, with a smartphone and potentially several other devices fleshing out the portfolio. On the one hand, this makes sense – few people want to buy just a phone anymore – they want to know that it comes with services and potentially other devices which will increase its value. On the other hand, creating such an ecosystem from scratch is incredibly tough and costly, as we’ve seen with LeEco recently too, so the prospects for success when trying to get there in one big leap are slim. The other big question about all of this, of course, is which operating system the Essential phone will run…
via Andy Rubin Nears His Comeback, Complete With an ‘Essential’ Phone – Bloomberg
Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card – Six Colors (Jan 12, 2017)
This Six Colors survey of Apple observers is an interesting exercise, because although this is a crowd that’s mostly made up of Apple fans, most are unafraid of speaking their minds and being critical where warranted (a complete listing along with a link to their verbatim comments is at the bottom of the post). The Mac was the area where Apple was hardest hit in this report card, understandably given the mounting frustration over the lack of new desktops, but I found the criticism on the Apple TV side less warranted – it got decent software upgrades, and the few gaps in video content have been filled, though admittedly it’s ever clearer that it won’t be an important gaming platform. It’s well worth reading the whole thing, because it’s a mostly honest evaluation of the tough year Apple had in 2016, with quite a bit of detail from some of the people who follow the company most closely. The big question for Apple is how it balances the need to please this vocal but arguably unrepresentative audience with its massive base of mainstream users – in 2016 it clearly served the latter more than the former, and got hit hard for it.
via Apple in 2016: The Six Colors report card – Six Colors
The Next Big Thing in Smartphones? The Software – WSJ (Jan 11, 2017)
The foundation of the claims made in this piece – the idea that smartphone growth is slowing driven by saturation and longer upgrade cycles – is absolutely accurate, the headline feels off. Software has always been a critical component of smartphones, so there’s nothing new there. And hardware continues to be extremely important too – see the iPhone 7’s dual cameras and the functionality they’ll support today and tomorrow, or conversely the Note7 recall. So the headline and thrust of the article is overblown, but there’s still some truth here, in that the focus of software innovation in smartphones is changing, and hardware is mature enough that the innovation is happening at the edges, not in huge leaps forward in basic hardware performance.
via The Next Big Thing in Smartphones? The Software – WSJ
The dream of Ara: Inside the rise and fall of the world’s most revolutionary phone | VentureBeat (Jan 10, 2017)
This piece is probably hundreds of words more than you want to read on Google’s failed Project Ara modular phone, but there’s some interesting history here nonetheless, and it also fits into at least two narratives: Hardware is Hard, and Alphabet Lacks Focus. This is just the kind of project that almost everyone who had any sense outside of Google (and presumably many inside it too) knew would never work – the kind of “great in theory, lousy in practice” thinking that Google often falls into. Smartphones are tough enough without massively handicapping many of the things people care about most with a modular approach. Google did eventually kill this project in the Ruth Porat era of austerity, but it should arguably never have made it past the YouTube video the story starts with.
via The dream of Ara: Inside the rise and fall of the world’s most revolutionary phone | VentureBeat
Parrot is laying off a third of its drone division – Recode (Jan 9, 2017)
I’ve tagged this one against the Hardware is Hard narrative, because it seems the perfect illustration – thin margins in the face of aggressively priced competition from China is the perfect encapsulation of much of what ails the hardware industry. On the other hand, it’s also notable that Parrot is heading deeper into the enterprise drone market and pulling back from the consumer side – that seems an entirely sensible move in the face of the competition, and should work out better for the company. DJI, though, seems increasingly dominant here, while I’m curious about how GoPro will fare – it faces the same issues as Parrot across its entire business, and may well see similar results in drones specifically.
via Parrot is laying off a third of its drone division – Recode
The Verge 2016 tech report card: Apple – The Verge (Dec 29, 2016)
I’ve seen lots of this sort of thing as we approach the end of the year – quite a number of Apple observers seem to see 2016 as an off year for the company. And yet so much depends on how you few key innovations – yes, the Watch changed relatively little, but those features will please runners, swimmers and wheelchair users, and the price drops that accompanied them created new markets. The same can be said for many of the other changes. Apple news continues to be something of a Rohrschach test for observers.
via The Verge 2016 tech report card: Apple – The Verge
The Verge 2016 tech report card: Microsoft – The Verge (Dec 29, 2016)
This is a good summary of Microsoft’s 2016, which was the year in which a significant turnaround or even a comeback seemed to become plausible. The company made some big advances in key areas, although there was no real advance in first-party tablets or laptops, and it all but killed off its Lumia smartphone business. There’s lots of potential here, but we’ll see in 2017 both whether Microsoft can really turn around its consumer business, and whether it can make its hardware business grow again.
via The Verge 2016 tech report card: Microsoft – The Verge
Counterpoints to The Hardware Apocalypse – Steven Sinofsky on Twitter (Dec 28, 2016)
This is a tweet storm in 13 parts, and a response to Farhad Manjoo’s gadget apocalypse piece from early December. Sinofsky makes several cogent arguments about the proper role of gadgets (though I suspect he may be using the term a little differently from Farhad). As I said in linking to Farhad’s original piece, there’s some truth there but it’s not all quite right.
via Steven Sinofsky ॐ on Twitter
Warm Takes on Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 – Medium (Dec 27, 2016)
Part of the recent version of the Apple is Doomed narrative has Microsoft in the ascendant, ready to eat its lunch. As with the rest of the narrative, that’s overblown, and this piece does a nice job of highlighting the challenges for Microsoft in winning over Mac users. It’s also a good entry in another couple of narratives – Hardware is Hard, and Microsoft and Hardware, pouring some cold water on the plaudits for Microsoft’s recent hardware efforts.
via Warm Takes on Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 – Medium
Chinese electronics firm LeEco won’t be able to close its Vizio purchase this year – Recode (Dec 24, 2016)
LeEco is a fascinating company – it’s certainly the most aggressive major Chinese tech vendor in its expansion in the US, but a major component of that expansion and building credibility in the US is the Vizio TV brand it is acquiring. It looks like that deal won’t close until early in the New Year, which will continue to hamper LeEco. But it’s far from the company’s biggest challenge – its financials continue to be a major question mark too.
via Chinese electronics firm LeEco won’t be able to close its Vizio purchase this year – Recode
Google will launch two flagship smartwatches early next year – The Verge (Dec 23, 2016)
It’s become increasingly clear in recent months that Android Wear is struggling mightily. Without a shot in the arm from Google, it seems likely to wither on the vine. I still think a Pixel-like direct entry from Google is the best strategy here, but this might be something of a stopgap.
via Google will launch two flagship smartwatches early next year – The Verge
The Inside Story Behind Pebble’s Demise (Dec 12, 2016)
Pebble was one of those rare combinations – an apparently popular brand that somehow nonetheless failed to translate that popularity into financial success. Its profile arguably far exceeded its achievements, and I was never a fan of its products. Its ultimate failure suggests few others were either. But this is an interesting recounting of what went wrong, particularly because Backchannel has been covering Pebble rather positively as part of a recent series.
via The Inside Story Behind Pebble’s Demise
The Gadget Apocalypse Is Upon Us – The New York Times (Dec 7, 2016)
I don’t agree with all of Farhad’s conclusions here – the nature of the columnist beast is that you have to make strong statements, sometimes stronger than you really believe. But there’s truth here, and some of my own thoughts too. Hardware is both easier than ever and harder than ever – easier to manufacture cheaply and at scale, and harder to build a large sustainable business at, especially in categories where the big players are dominant.
via The Gadget Apocalypse Is Upon Us – The New York Times