I look at data behind iPhone unit sales, and see versioning issues of a durable-goods monopolist rather than trade uncertainties. Using Clockspeed theory, I argue that iPhone pricing and versioning advantage was temporary. The advantage was great when it lasted, but it is now behind Apple, as the smartphone market matures.
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Snap’s adventurous foray into the hardware market continues. Cheddar and then Verge reported that Snap is busy working on Version 2 of Spectacles. Here is Alex Heath from Cheddar: But Snap won’t stop with version two of Spectacles. The company has also begun work on a more ambitious, third generation of Spectacles with a new design and two cameras, the people said. Snap has prototyped an aluminum design with more circular lens frames and two cameras that would allow for 3D-like depth effects in videos. Snap has additionally considered including a built-in GPS and a leather case, as well as a potential price tag of around $300, which would be more than double the current $130 cost for Spectacles. Snap…
Leave a CommentI received an email note from a student in the Forecasting class (thanks: HT) about excess inventories of Snap Spectacles. The article on Information (subscription required) mentions that only (slightly more than) 150,000 units were sold and hundreds of thousands of unsold units sitting in warehouses. Snap contends that the sales exceeded their own expectations, but clearly the pre-sales expectations were high (as documented here and here). A lot of coverage was brimming with snark (some of it from the very folks who were excited about the product), and ex-post analysis of how bad the product is. I am no fan of Snap. However, I wanted to highlight a few points while providing a back-of-the-envelope framework to think about the…
One CommentAn excellent recent article on Atlantic by Derek Thompson talks about how the History of Sears predicts nearly everything that Amazon is doing. I recommend this well-researched article as a great reading to understand Amazon in the context of how Retail business has changed over the years. Interestingly, this has been a point I have been stressing about understanding Amazon in the Operations Strategy Class (OIDD 615) at Wharton at least for the last 5 years. Here is the slide I typically show before beginning the Amazon discussion in OIDD 615 Class (the one below is from October 2016), while building up to the eventuality of Amazon opening more stores. I think that the theory is working out pretty well.…
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