On Competition & Product Management
Pandora’s own Jack Krawczyk had a great post up yesterday about competition, feature wars, and product management. Do yourself a favor. Bookmark and re-read this every time a new competitor comes along.
Here are the two parts that stuck out most to me:
The biggest lesson I’ve learned about new products coming out onto the market is that competition is the best reminder that you need to remain vigilant that you understand the aspirations, habits and pains of your users/customers.
and
Competition comes and goes. That’s the certain thing. Sometimes competitors succeed in teaching you something new about what matters, but that’s where the real fun lives: your success hinges on understanding your users/customers better than the competition.
It would be a lie to say nobody paid attention to iTunes Radio today around the Pandora offices. It would be an even greater lie to say that we didn’t do what we do exactly every day: continue to find a way to connect people with the music they love as fast as possible. I would say game on, but the game has been on for years.
comScore is out with their latest list of the Top 10 iOS and Android apps in the U.S. ranked by unique visitors. Not surprising, Google is just dominating. 5 out of the top 6.
Source: techhive.com
News Flash: Apple And Google App Markets Still Booming
Lots of good nuggets in here. But none of this should be surprising. The app economy is still showing monstrous YoY growth with no signs of slowing down any time soon.
Here are the highlights:
• Google Play showed tremendous growth during the past four months, with an aggregated growth in daily revenue of 43% across 20 of the largest countries, while the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad grew by 21% in daily revenue in the same period.
• Even though the growth in revenues in Google Play in the last four months is close to that of the Apple App Store in 2012, the growth in daily revenues in the Apple App Store was higher than the total daily revenues in Google Play when comparing absolute daily revenue values.
• Looking at the worldwide download volumes, the app store opportunity is large. On a typical day in November 2012, the revenues in the Apple App Store exceeded $15M USD, while in Google Play the revenues are just below $3.5M USD in 20 of the largest countries in both app stores.
• Seven applications were responsible for 10% of the revenues in November 2012 in the Apple App Store for iPhone, which is significantly lower number of applications than in January 2012. Moreover, in the Apple App Store for iPad, six applications were responsible for 10% of the revenues, while in Google Play this figure was four.
• The proportion of revenue that derived from in-apps increased from 53% to 69% in 2012. However, in 2012 there were still some publishers who were very successful with a paid-only strategy. Moreover, 35% of the revenue from the top 10 publishers was derived from one-off fees in 2012.>
Full report is available for download here.
Good shit from The Economist on Tech’s Game of Thrones.
My favorite analogy in here is Microsoft: “Like the Targaryen family, which used to rule Westeros and now plots in exile to regain the crown, the company is desperate to regain its former glory.” If only Steve Ballmer looked a bit more like Daenerys…
Two of my favorite guys in tech, Howard Lindzon and Jason Calacanis, chat startups and markets on TWIST. Definitely worth a watch.
(via Apple’s Hit-And-Miss Quarter In Charts)
Here’s what else stood out to me:
- iCloud now has over 190mm users, up 26.7% from last quarter — which means more customer lock in to iOS
- Apple expects 80% of Q1 revenue to come from products released in the last 6 weeks — just, wow
- Apple will have $121.3B in cash on the books after the new dividend — enough to buy all the teams in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL
- Facing supply constrain on ALL their new products: iPhone 5, iPad Mini, and iMac
Going into the holiday season there seems to be a lot of pent up demand globally for Apple devices. It really will be all about Q1.
Pretty much exactly as advertised.
Glad to see LTE was included since some rumors had it as a no-go.
Also, 100 million iPads sold. Wow.
I have no idea what Apple’s current quarter will look like (earnings tomorrow afternoon). But their next quarter over the holidays — with iPhone 5 supply catching up to demand and the iPad Mini as a huge holiday hit — is going to be an absolute monster.
Highly recommend this podcast for anyone interested in mobile apps and moble gaming.
ChangeWave: iPhone 5 buying intention at record highs; consumers don’t have a problem with Apple Maps
Looks like the whole Maps issue isn’t a big deal after all. Surveys are notoriously unreliable but if this is true then all the more reason for Apple to hit $1000 a share.
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