The Catalyst Code

Apple’s recent unveiling of a software developer kit (SDK) for its iPhone is further confirmation that this company is in serious contention to catalyze the mobile ecosystem and disrupt the operator-centric model that many believe has stymied the growth of mobile-phone based businesses in the United States and much of Europe. The SDK has […]

Steve Jobs has taken a lot of flak since his speech at MacWorld on Tuesday. Of greatest concern is whether Apple’s streak of luck in the digital media space has run its course. The content providers that make its iTunes store valuable and get people to buy those pricey iPods have been bailing in […]

Nokia’s gusty move to allow free music downloads is being reported as a major shakeup in the business model for digital music since the downloaded music becomes a permanent part of a music collectors’ library – and can even be burned to a DVD or stored onto a PC. “Comes With Music” is being lauded […]

The power struggle for the digital music ecosystem continues. NBC just announced that it wasn’t going to renew its agreement with Apple to sell its digital videos—about 40 percent of the iTunes downloads—through the iTunes Store. That follows Vivendi’s similar decision last month. NBC reportedly wants to be able to control its pricing and […]

Amazon is teaming up with EMI and surely others to offer music that isn’t subject to all those annoying restrictions on using the tunes you download from the Internet.
This is an important development for two reasons.
First, it’s a sign that music publishers are coming to their senses and realizing that fighting the spread […]

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 […]

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 […]