A full-fledged hardware business would likely radically reduce Facebook’s profit margins. One of the advantages of Facebook’s current business is that it is extraordinarily profitable. The hardware business would likely make it a lot less profitable (per dollar of revenue).
The phones in our pockets have become supercomputers that are changing the way we live. It’s now possible to do things we used to think were magic, or only possible on Star Trek—like get directions right from where we are standing; watch a video on YouTube; or take a picture and share the moment instantly with friends.
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| — | http://googleblog.blogspot.jp/2012/05/weve-acquired-motorola-mobility.html#!/2012/05/weve-acquired-motorola-mobility.html |
Foursquare is no longer the only social network built for the mobile Internet user – now there is Instagram and Path and a few others – and it is definitely not the most exciting new social network since Facebook; that’s Pinterest.
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| — | http://www.businessinsider.com/foursquare-may-not-be-toast-yet-but-its-browning-at-the-edges-2012-4 |
Who can blame them? Groupon has a history of weird accounting. It used to call itself profitable, booking marketing expenses as a capitol cost. It also had a funny way of counting its revenues for a while. Now there’s today’s news.
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| — | http://www.businessinsider.com/groupons-auditor-just-filed-a-statement-of-material-weakness-to-sec-2012-3 |
The pattern started to show last year, when Google bought ITA for search, Motorola for Android, Next New Networks for YouTube, and Zagat for local mobile commerce.
Another big change – that may seem like a no-brainer! – under Page, Manjoo says, newly acquired teams are no longer allowed to “disappear without ever producing a product.”
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| — | http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-page-is-forcing-google-to-be-much-less-stupid-about-acquisitions-2012-3 |
Because Groupon has grown the office’s headcount mostly through acquisition, about one-in-three employees out there are former CEOs or startup entrepreneurs.
When anyone — performer, politician, blogger — says he has a license to lie because he’s not a journalist, he’s lying.
So most people who have heard of Yahoo’s lawsuit think that the lawsuit and Yahoo are pathetic.
If AOL sued anyone for patent infringement, everyone would think AOL was pathetic, too.
Location is a big part of games. People like to play games where they can interact with their normal surroundings — places and businesses that they go to everyday. It’s the convergence of doing check-ins and making check-ins part of the game. You can only do it with a mobile phone. You can’t do it with a laptop or Facebook. There are a few examples like Life is Crime, MyTown, and TapCity, and a few others. They are starting to scratch the surface of a game that is centered around location. There’s a lot more to be done.
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| — | http://www.businessinsider.com/google-don-dodge-says-the-smartphone-war-isnt-really-a-war-2012-3 |
