This is a Short Note.
Most times, for tech startups, investors care for only tech founders. If you are three and only one is technical, you have one founder. There is a reason for that: you must have a problem solved before you can market it.
Apple will likely pay $8 billion to Qualcomm on royalties. The latter took it to International Trade Commission which now wants to hear the compliant. According to Credit Suisse, Apple will likely settle. Why? ITC can block imports of iPhone to US. From Fortune Newsletter,
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Apple is likely to pay around $8 billion to settle its dispute with chipmaker Qualcomm out of court – possibly as early as this month. So reckons Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha, anyways. The International Trade Commission has formally agreed to hear Qualcomm’s complaint, opening the door to a possible ban on imports of iPhones into the U.S
Samsung commands 97% global market share of the OLED display which Apple will have in its new devices. That is a huge positioning power over a major competitor.
Microsoft wants to build in-house the chip for Hololens, the AR system. It is obvious chips for AR must be customized the Apple A8 way. From Google to Facebook, most make some chips for their servers. Google has a really fast one..
On Sunday, the software giant unveiled a new microprocessor of its own design that will go into future hardware products, such as the next version of its HoloLens augmented reality glasses, to perform artificial intelligence tasks. The AI coprocessor will analyze visual, auditory, and other sensor data locally on the device instead of relying on sending the information to a cloud-based server for review.
“This is the kind of thinking you need if you’re going to develop mixed reality devices that are themselves intelligent,” Marc Pollefeys, Microsoft’s director of science for the HoloLens, wrote in a blog post. “Mixed reality and artificial intelligence represent the future of computing, and we’re excited to be advancing this frontier.”
This is it: what you are seeing in these titans is happening at local level. Succeeding in a business now is tough because the cost of doing business is lower. The implication is that incumbents can advance to attack new business models with minimal pains. You make a chip, someone can easily make it because Internet has made knowledge abundant. A bank you want to partner can integrate that feature overnight in its app.
So, as you plan, be flexible for whatever comes. You must be aware of these challenges, understanding that even your best client can do what you are doing. Apple did just that to Imagination Technologies when it decided to make its mobile chip in-house.
So solution is innovation – making sure you stay ahead of the curve. And you must be flexible with deep awareness to pivot with capacities to see problems before they arise. Being a tech founder today requires lots of vision. You must be the Chief Product Officer.
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