Mark Sigal on O'Reilly Broadcast

Posterous: The Copy-and-Post Revolution in (Micro) Blogging

2009-11-04T18:00:11Z

A friend of mine, who has achieved repeated success in high-tech startup land, said that if you want to be successful, focus on segments where <10% of the crowd currently adopts the solution, and by virtue of dramatically simplifying the approach, you can toggle adoption rates to closer to 90%. Enter Posterous, a micro-blogging tool (it's free) that does a few things really well.

The Right Stuff: Apple's Q4 Earnings Call

2009-10-20T18:37:06Z

The Fourth Quarter was Apple's most profitable quarter ever. Yesterday's earnings call was about two things. One, the iPhone Platform continues to deliver the goods. Two, the continued impressive growth of the Mac, especially MacBooks. As such, it was about the power of the platform as much as it was about the device itself.

Land and Expand: Why Apple Allowing In-App Purchases in Free Apps is a Big Deal

2009-10-16T23:27:42Z

Yesterday, Apple announced that they are now allowing In-App Purchasing within free apps. I think that this is a big deal, an entree into what I refer to as 'land and expand,' and yet another reason that Apple remains the gold standard of mobile computing.

Should Apple Give a Rat's Ass that Developers Aren't Getting Rich off of the iPhone Platform?

2009-10-07T21:26:23Z

Apple's iPhone Platform is a runaway success relative to just about any metric that you can throw at it, save for one. Where are the breakout successful developers for whom the platform is a 'True Wealth' inducing moment? On the one hand, it is humorous to listen to the woes of 'aspiring' millionaires quibble. On the other, there is a valid argument that Apple's push to drive volume and ubiquity via "cheap" comes at the potential cost of cultivating breakout, transformational apps that cost more, require a longer sales cycle, and thus, more evangelizing to find their beachhead.

iPhone, the 'Personal' Computer - Future of the Mobile Web

2009-09-15T17:15:57Z

The iPhone is the first truly 'personal' computer; more personal to its owners than the PC ever was. Talk to iPhone owners (not to mention, the 20M iPod Touch owners), and this truth bubbles to the top again and again.

Analysis of Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" iPod event

2009-09-10T14:30:22Z

Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" iPod event yesterday had the feel of a paint-by-the numbers session. All tactics and little magic. Here's why...

Environment Variables: On Surplus, Scarcity, Fear & Greed

2009-08-18T14:43:10Z

I am big believer that markets gravitate between FEAR and GREED, and that industries are driven by core assumptions about the SCARCITY or SURPLUS of enabling resources. Think about the stock market in terms of the former (it's heavily outlook driven), and the evolution of computing, as afforded by the latter (i.e., the commoditization of processing, storage and bandwidth).

Quantum Leaps and Wave Logic

2009-07-15T17:47:05Z

I have been ruminating a bit about the onset of the Mobile Broadband Age and the rise of Cloud Computing models, and will blog about the topic shortly. This quote by Carver Mead struck me as pretty relevant to thinking about the fulcrum that is forming before us.

Apple has secretly released a Tablet Computer: It's called iPod touch

2009-07-14T21:04:06Z

It seems that Apple is poised to launch its Tablet Computing entry later this year for a (rumored) price ranging between $500-800; wedging it from a pricing relativity perspective at about a grand less than a MacBook Air with solid state memory. But, perhaps the real story with respect to the forthcoming Apple Tablet Device is that Apple has already released a tablet computing device. It's called the iPod touch, and because it's often overshadowed by its noisier sibling, the iPhone, we sometimes forget that it has already sold 15M+ units.

Nine Essential Truths for Entrepreneurial Success

2009-06-24T01:39:00Z

Leveraging the pattern recognition of others is one of the best ways to build upon best practices, while sidestepping avoidable mistakes. What follows is a primer of nine key lessons learned from doing eight startups (four as co-founder, four liquidity events).

Pattern Recognition: Makers, Marketplaces and the Library of the Commons

2009-06-16T21:21:26Z

Finally, having a chance to decompress following his Maker Faire visit, Mark Sigal ruminates on what Maker Faire's 78K attendees means, concluding that it's all about creative destruction, mass customization and the rise of DIY (do it yourself) class.

Analysis: Apple WWDC Keynote - Punishing the Wizard, Part Two

2009-06-09T15:31:38Z

Fair or unfair, Apple has done such a good job of delivering technical wizardry over the years that when they merely execute, we hammer them because...well, we expect magic. With that in mind, this analysis of Apple's WWDC Keynote yesterday tries to make sense of the key storylines likely to play out for Apple in the coming months.

Built-to-Thrive - The Standard Bearers: Apple, Google, Amazon

2009-05-18T18:00:34Z

When you think of companies that are not only built to last, but rather, built to thrive - in good times and bad - what companies logically sit at the top of the pyramid? Equally important, what should be the criteria for assessing them? Let me propose a straw man for assessing the "Built-to-Thrive" bunch...

Apply Sparingly: Open Standards (and When to Use Them)

2009-05-08T23:07:24Z

The great thing about standards is that there are "so many to choose from." While it may be convenient to default to aphorisms like proprietary is evil, open is good, I am here to tell you that there are only three reasons to embrace open standards.

The Goodness of Artificial Milestones

2009-04-29T20:55:44Z

A friend of mine in startup-land had a really important meeting with a prospective partner. Knowing the one-shot nature of these things, he literally moved mountains in just a few days, achieving a transformational milestone for his fledgling, early-stage company. How did he do it? Read on...