If you don’t read Benedict Evans, you should start here (
http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=5c44af77ba&e=a90f420a9c
)
And now, my reading of his snippets:
Nokia to fork Android for low-end phones — Android has replaced
featurephones. So if you want to play in low-end you need to use Android.
Makes sense. Meanwhile there is still a struggle for real smartphones and
Android plays there too of course, but Apple is the rival. Marketshare #s
are irrelevant if not divided this way, imho. (
http://ben-evans.us6.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=3058541187&e=a90f420a9c
)
Rakuten buys Viber for $9/MAU. Low compared to $20 for Instagram and $60(?)
offer for Snapchat. (
http://ben-evans.us6.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=62def96832&e=a90f420a9c
)
Office for iPad at last. Question: why isn’t Microsoft playing the tablet
revolution the way they played the PC revolution? Make the ‘best’ software
they can for all platforms. Remember the sections in the Jobs book about
Gates kissing ass in Cupertino? (
http://ben-evans.us6.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=bc78ba7e10&e=a90f420a9c
)
Nook dies. I was wrong – this took longer than I expected. I guess because
MSFT propped them up with a big investment 2 years ago. (
http://ben-evans.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=c8b08ed17a&e=a90f420a9c
)
GetJAR sold for little. They had raised a lot. I envied them when Accel
invested on the “open appstore” bet. Didn’t work. Android killed them too.
Which is the story of all things in mobile the last 5 years — startups
doing anything close to the OS core were absorbed by Android’s strategy. (
http://ben-evans.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=97cd451ec7&e=a90f420a9c
)
My guess is Viber sold because WeChat is doing so well (100mm downloads on
Play alone, ex-China —
http://ben-evans.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=e01cb79e94&e=a90f420a9c)
and Line is monetizing like crazy (
http://ben-evans.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=123d8bf49a&e=a90f420a9c)
and WhatsApp is 400mm+ users and 10mm+ in Russian alone (
http://ben-evans.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b98e2de85f03865f1d38de74f&id=25f7373e25&e=a90f420a9c).
In short — because Viber’s growth was slowing. (Wish I knew something
specific — Viber acquired Peek China about 1.5 years ago for cash not
stock).