Monthly Archives: February 2017

Advertising, AT&T, Episodes, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sprint, T-Mobile, Uber, Verizon, Wireless

Episode 83 – State of Online Advertising, US Wireless Market Update

Our News Roundup this week covers former Uber employee Susan Fowler’s revelations about how she was treated as a female engineer at the company, and the subsequent announcement of an investigation by a semi-independent panel; Waze’s expansion into becoming a carpooling service; and Microsoft’s launch of Skype Lite, an innovative low-bandwidth version of Skype for emerging markets which launched in India this week.

Our Question of the Week is “What is the true state of online advertising?” We’ve all heard lots about Google and Facebook’s massive revenues from online advertising, and their increasing dominance of the space, but we’ve also seen recent news about increasing calls for independent audits of their advertising metrics, and questions from big advertisers about the effectiveness of online advertising. So Aaron takes us through some of the complex dynamics, challenges, and prospects for the online advertising industry and the potential for companies like Snap, Twitter, and Yahoo/AOL under Verizon.

Our Third Segment is an update on the US wireless market following last week’s announcements by Verizon and AT&T that they will begin offering unlimited plans broadly after several years of trying to kill them off. We talk about the likely impact on these companies of offering these plans and potentially opening the floodgates to higher usage, as well as the competitive impact on the two smaller carriers, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Our Weekly Pick is a puzzle app recommended by Jan.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Apple, Episodes, Facebook, Original content, Snapchat, T-Mobile, TV, Verizon, Wireless charging

Episode 82 – Original Video Content, Snap’s S-1 Filing

We’re back to our usual format this week. Our News Roundup kicks off with a couple of US wireless stories – Verizon Wireless reintroducing unlimited plans, and T-Mobile reporting its results. Next up, we discuss Apple joining the Wireless Power Consortium, and what it might mean. And lastly, we discuss Facebook’s announcement that it’s working on an app for TV boxes like the Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.

Our Question of the Week is “Who is investing in original video content and why?” The topic has been in the news this week with Apple showing off trailers for two new original series that will be part of Apple Music, and YouTube star PewDiePie being dropped from its original content lineup after making some anti-semitic videos. We discuss who’s investing in this area, why, and what they’re spending, as well as whether it will all be worth it.

Our Weekly Pick is a musician recommended by Aaron.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Amazon, Android Wear, Apple, Apple TV, Episodes, Ethics, Politics, Trump, Virtual reality

Episode 81 – Business and Politics, News Roundup

We have a slightly different format this week – Jan lost his voice and so we took out the third segment we usually have and spent a little more time on the Question of the Week, where Aaron was going to be doing most of the talking.

Our News Roundup covers three news items as usual. First up: Oculus’s decision to close 200 of its Best Buy demo areas for VR, which some have taken as a sign that VR is fizzling. Second, we talk about Apple’s recent hiring of a former Amazon Fire TV executive, and what it might mean about Apple’s ability to sign content deals. And thirdly, we discuss Android Wear 2.0 and the new LG smartwatches which launched this week, and what they suggest about the state of the smartwatch market and wearables more broadly.

Our Question of the Week is “What role should businesses play in political and social change?” This topic has been in the news recently with many tech companies weighing in on the Trump administration’s recent executive orders on immigration, but it also has a long history. Aaron talks us through some of the history, the pros and cons of corporate intervention in politics, and the evidence about whether such intervention is actually effective or not. This isn’t a political discussion per se, but we do touch on some current and past political issues.

Our Weekly Pick is a TV show recommended by Jan.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Apple, Apple Watch, Earnings, Episodes, Fitbit, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Narratives, Roku

Episode 80 – Tech Narratives, Apple Earnings

2 Comments

A quick note: we had an glitch at Aaron’s end, which dramatically reduced the quality of his side of the audio, so he sounds like he’s on the other end of a phone line rather than using a high powered mic. We’re not sure what happened, but it wasn’t fixable, unfortunately. Our apologies, but things should be back to normal next week.

The three topics in our News Roundup this week are pretty diverse. We start with Fitbit’s preliminary earnings, which were below guidance and triggered layoffs at the company, undermining the company’s argument that its recent slowing growth is temporary. Secondly, we discuss the Comcast-Roku partnership which puts Xfinity TV on Roku as an app as a potential replacement for a set top box, with some significant caveats. Lastly, we talk about Slack’s launch of Enterprise Grid, a more sophisticated version of the app for larger, complex enterprises.

Our Question of the Week is “What are narratives in tech and where do they come from?” We talk about the prevalence of narratives in tech news – the stories that get woven around companies and trends in the industry, and which often take on a life of their own, limiting companies’ ability to shape people’s perceptions. We use this topic as a jumping-off point for talking about Jan’s new website, Tech Narratives (www.technarratives.com), which aims to evaluate these narratives and put the day’s tech news in context.

Our third segment is a review of Apple’s earnings for the December quarter. We discuss individual product lines like iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Watch, but also talk about broader issues like the extra week in the quarter, currency headwinds, the potential for finally repatriating some of Apple’s overseas cash in 2017, and what’s really going on in China.

Lastly, our Weekly Pick is a children’s book recommendation from Aaron.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

  • News Roundup:
  • Question of the Week:
  • Aaron’s Weekly Pick was The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown (Amazon affiliate link), a children’s book Aaron has been enjoying with one of his sons recently (and which, he revealed later on Wednesday, has an emotional ending).

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.