Critical Path

This week, Horace follows up on his discussion of automobiles and road infrastructure by talking about how road networks were rebuilt in European countries to accommodate cycling. That leads to hints about the challenge of re-building energy infrastructure to support new power train technologies. We talk about RIM's post-trauma life expectancy. Finally He and Dan also analyze comments made by Tim Cook at the recent D10 conference about Apple TV and disruption of the entertainment industry.

via 5by5 | The Critical Path #40: Awaiting the Big Bang.

Show links:

• Tim Cook at D10: In his own words | Macworld
• The Critical Path: The First Year by Horace Dediu — Kickstarter
• Top Gear's Richard Hammond on the 190E as a future classic
• Mercedes-Benz Museum (Wikipedia)
• Pucher, John and Buehler, Ralph (2008) 'Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany'
• Energy in the United States (Wikipedia)
• US Energy Flow 2009 (Wikipedia, Sankey Diagram from LLNL)

Dan and Horace take a nostalgic trip through the automotive industry. Horace asks why should a 20 year old car (which he happens to own) be replaced? Why are cars built to be disposed of and why aren't they meaningfully improved based on new jobs to be done? In this episode we look at the auto industry as a proxy for other "network-based" industries which reach plateaus of innovation and can go no further. Plus, Horace challenges readers to guess what car he drives.

via 5by5 | The Critical Path #39: The Locus of Power.

Show notes:

• Apple Tops 100 Most Valuable Brands Survey - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD
• The Critical Path: The First Year by Horace Dediu — Kickstarter
• Planned Obsolescence — Wikipedia

(Answer to the quiz question here).

Horace and Dan wade into Android Economics expanding on the series of posts on Asymco. We also give an update on The Critical Path Kickstarter project.

via 5by5 | The Critical Path #38: Seeking Enlightenment.

 

Horace and Dan talk about how the Critical Path (The First Year) ebook Kickstarter project began, and hint at an upcoming topic: how to analyze the Android market.

 

5by5 | The Critical Path #37: Pathfinder I.

The Critical Path has been an exceptionally well received podcast. It has an audience of hundreds of thousands of thoughtful listeners. Many of the concepts covered can and should be reviewed in a medium that can be referenced and annotated and shared. For this reason I would like to publish edited transcripts of the podcasts as an eBook. This will be an edited and tagged transcript of the first year of The Critical Path.

via The Critical Path: The First Year by Horace Dediu — Kickstarter.

Dan and Horace are back to discuss the latest news from Nokia, RIM, HTC and Sony and what they have to do with each other. We touch on the distinction between market and product orientation and meander into the question of what is the value of the enterprise vis-a-vis the product it sells and what management has meant and what it should mean. We even tackle the history (and future) of history.

via 5by5 | The Critical Path #33: The Futility of Machinations.

This show covered a lot of topics, broad as well as deep.

Show notes and links:

1. Investors hang up on Nokia after yet another profit warning - Apr. 11, 2012
2. Sony posts its worst loss ever – USATODAY.com
3. Sony doubles red ink forecast to worst loss ever - Yahoo! Finance
4. Sony and Sharp warn of record annual losses - Telegraph
5. 5by5 | The Critical Path #2: Synchronized failure

5by5 | The Critical Path #30: Jetlag.

The thirtieth Critical Path is an extended edition covering a broad sweep of topics: The new iPad and the value of filling the gaps, trip report on the Apple Investor Summit, conversations with a TV show writer, Tim Cook's attack on the cash mountain and an update on Asymconf. Horace also talks about his cure for jetlag.

The Critical Path show switches format for this week's episode. I interview a guest.

5by5 | The Critical Path #14: The Super-platform ecosystem.

The idea is that rather than just telling stories and interpreting the world from my point of view, I should also ask others to teach from their experience.

In this case I discuss the disruptive potential of cloud computing with Randy Bias. Randy is the CTO of Cloudscaling, a designer of infrastructure cloud systems and a vast knowledge of the challenges and value of what we now call cloud systems. I've consulted for Randy in the past and I thought he could add a lot to the understanding of super-platforms. Super-platforms, you may recall, is a term I used to describe the coupling of Web Services and Devices in a mutually inter-dependent business model. I introduced the concept as a way to think about Siri and iCloud and potentially the Kindle and Amazon in general.

In this show I ask Randy to comment on the thesis that devices and cloud systems as a coupled system are a potential disruption to both the device-only model of computing and the cloud-only model of services. In other words, is the new ecosystem the coupling of devices with backend cloud APIs? We also touch on the scope of Apple's data centers and the way we can calibrate the investment.

I think this is a ripe area of research and thinking about the future of computing. It will require learning a new way of measuring "performance" of solutions and the businesses built around it. It will take a multi-disciplinary approach to ferret out the key value propositions.

The Critical Path #3: It's Good to Be King - 5by5.

July 3, 2011 at 6:00pm

Horace Dediu and Dan Benjamin discuss the power of cash to control supply chains in the post-PC era and how Apple is challenging conventional wisdom about its value to shareholders.

RUNTIME: 57:19

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Critical Path #1: The Five Year Plan - 5by5.

Critical Path is a talk show contemplating the causality of success and failure in mobile computing. Using Apple as a lens to look at both telecom and traditional computing markets, we try understand what it means to be great.

In this inaugural episode, Horace Dediu and Dan Benjamin try to weigh the strategic implications of Apple’s WWDC announcements. We take a look at the impact on RIM, operators, Google and Apple’s flirtation with Twitter.