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  • Archive for April, 2007

    Putting the App in Apple

    By: David Evans on April 30th, 2007

    Apple’s iPhone is scheduled to hit the Cingular shelves late June. Until then Apple is following the tight integration/walled garden strategy that made its iPod-iTunes combo the gorilla to beat in the digital music world.
    A recent posting on seekingalpha.com noted that Apple is also keep third-party apps off of iPhone. The author speculated this […]

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    Attracting Customers with VuDu

    By: David Evans on April 29th, 2007

    VuDu, which was profiled in the biz section of today’s New York Times, is the latest entrant into the race for viewing movies at home on television. With some ex-TiVo execs in control, this new company is going to be challenging Apple, Microsoft and a host of others.
    Using computers to distribute and play movies […]

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    From bookstore to software platform

    By: David Evans on April 27th, 2007

    “Sold on eBay, Shipped by Amazon.com”, says the headline in the biz section of the NYTimes today. This is a great example of Amazon’s efforts to use a catalyst strategy to drive growth and profits.
    Originally, Amazon was an on-line version of a large bookstore. But with its investment in a software platform for buying […]

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    The single- v. multi-sided approach to media players

    By: David Evans on April 25th, 2007

    Apple provides a cautionary tale to anyone who is thinking about the catalyst strategies that have driven much of the IT growth in the last twenty years and are powering Web 2.0 ahead.
    Apple’s profit soared to its highest quarterly level according to the company’s second-quarter release yesterday. Interestingly, although almost half its profits […]

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    The Newspaper Form Factor

    By: David Evans on April 24th, 2007

    On Forbes.com today, I have an article that argues that its the form factor that will save the newspaper industry from further demise:
    “The newspaper business has a simple model: charge advertisers for getting access to readers whom you attract with relevant content and cheap prices. That’s been a great model for a few centuries now, […]

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    Card Technology Asks “Where Are The Merchants?”

    By: David Evans on April 18th, 2007

    Those who share my skepticism of the future of contactless in the U.S.–or at least the hype surround it–may see the same thing going on in London where merchants have been slow to join the move to contactless.
    I actually think contactless will take eventually off in London. Lots of Londoners have contactless cards that […]

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    Why MySpace Needs to Regulate

    By: David Evans on April 16th, 2007

    MySpace got slammed in BusinessWeek for preventing people from using third-party widgets for their pages.
    I think they got a bad rap. MySpace is a platform where people can meet just like a shopping mall, a nightclub, or the floor of an exchange. Companies that operate these kind of platform businesses have to do two […]

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    Cracking Mobile Ads in Asia

    By: David Evans on April 15th, 2007

    Look to Asia if you want to see what’s going to be happening on your mobile phone in the United States in a few years.
    The Japanese and Koreans have been far ahead of us in introducing mobile phones. And they are creating lots of services on top of those phones that will migrate to […]

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    Processing Payments

    By: David Evans on April 14th, 2007

    In a recent American Banker (subscription required) article, Dan Wolfe asked “How Far Will In-House Shift Go at B of A?”
    That’s in response to reports that this enormous bank will scale back its bill-payment relationship with CheckFree. It is a good question not just for this Charlotte-based megabank but for all the banks that are […]

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    Interchange Wars

    By: David Evans on April 13th, 2007

    Visa has increased its interchange fee rate again, continuing a trend towards higher interchange fees. Merchants will no doubt complain about the rapacious card systems and policymakers may increase their scrutiny of the systems that handle an ever expanding portion of transcations in this country.
    But before everyone gets of their cudgels it is important […]

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