Business of Tech

Mobile Payments & iTunes

With the most anticipated Apple event since the last one mere hours away, something’s been bothering me. For Apple, the introduction of its own iPhone payments product will end years of speculation about when it will take advantage of its massive file of hundreds of millions of credit cards from iTunes and App Store customers […]

Nintendo’s head in the sand approach

There’s a fascinating article on Eurogamer about the launch of the WiiU from the perspective of a games developer. It’s interesting for a number of reasons, but one comment really stands out: At some point in this conversation we were informed that it was no good referencing Live and PSN as nobody in their development […]

Music curation

Re/Code covering the new music streaming service from Beats: Here’s how Iovine put it a year ago: “Other music subscription] companies, these services, all lack curation. They call it curation; there’s no curation. That’s what we did as a record label, we curated. There’s 150 white rappers in America; we served you one.” There will […]

Microsoft heads in a worrying direction

There’s an excellent article on The Verge where they speak to Steve & Steve about Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s handset division. The big question they try and get the assembled Steves to answer is whether Steve 2 (Stephen Elop) is in line to replace Steve 1 as Microsoft CEO.  It’s fairly clear that this has […]

Who’ll give me odds?

I’ve been reading with interest the coverage around Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia’s phone division and it’s got my head spinning (more on that later).  Something that did pop in to my mind when reading TechCrunch’s assessment of what’s left at Nokia, specifically the HERE Services, was that they must be prime target for Apple?  They’ve […]

ASUS backing away from Windows RT

AllThingsD: While not completely ruling out future Windows RT products, Shih said that, when it comes to Windows, he is putting all of his time and energy into devices that use Intel chips. Microsoft really are floundering at the moment.  Sales are down almost across the board, and some of their big bets aren’t paying […]

Redefining “a few”

Neowin reporting on a Microsoft Internal event hosted by Steve Ballmer: During his internal address, Ballmer stated that Windows is not selling well enough, which shouldn’t come as a major surprise, as the company has blamed just about everything under the sun for the slower adoption of Windows 8. On the Surface: We built a […]

Google’s baffling product line-up

Sometimes, I sit back in awe at some of the incredible things Google is capable of.  They innovate, refine and deliver some of the best services out there.  At other times, I can’t help but wonder if there’s anyone with a clear vision for the company and the various product groups operating within.  To underline […]

The world has changed

There’s a fascinating interview with EA executive Frank Gibeau on Venture Beat.  Amongst the golden nuggets: We burned the ships and marched inland. [Laughs] About 76 percent of our revenue this quarter was digital, not disc-based. We’re off to the races. EA is the third biggest games publisher in the world, and they’re seeing more […]

Waffle and nonsense

Steve Ballmer talking about the reorganisation Microsoft announced today: “Although we will deliver multiple devices and services to execute and monetise the strategy, the single core strategy will drive us to set shared goals for everything we do. We will see our product line holistically, not as a set of islands,” Mr Ballmer said. Eh, […]