Apple tries to get its nose under the OEM’s tent. Apple is working on ways to enable users to access vehicle functions such as seats or climate control from within CarPlay in a move that would herald the beginning of the end for the digital aspirations of the OEMs. Bloomberg has unearthed a new project by Apple called IronHeart that...
An EU investigation was expected. The EU is extremely likely to opt for a deeper investigation into the acquisition of Arm by NVIDIA in a move that was very predictable and, in my opinion, does not change the situation in any meaningful way. Reuters (see here) is reporting that the EU is ending its preliminary investigation into the deal on...
Magic Leap is back and has a seat at the table. Magic Leap is back in contention with a new device and a funding round, but the company has not said anything that has not already been said by everyone else, leaving me wondering where it plans on finding its competitive edge outside of hardware. After what looked like certain...
Meituan follows Alibaba and sends a signal. Meituan has emerged from regulatory scrutiny almost completely unscathed implying that as long as everybody toes the line and behaves, then business (with a few exceptions) will be allowed to continue pretty much as it did before. Meituan has been fined RMB3.4bn ($530m) which equates to 3% of its 2020 turnover for abusing...
The profit might be fake, but the company is not. DeepMind’s move into profitability means very little and, in my opinion, deflects attention from the fact that Deep Mind is one of the finest AI companies in the world. DeepMind made a profit of £46m in 2020 on revenues of £826m which represented an increase of more than 3x in...
Congress seems to want to give Facebook the ByteDance treatment. Facebook has had a bad week but the allegations being made have been quite effectively shot down by Mr. Zuckerberg, highlighting the possibility that this event is being used as an excuse for the US government to take control of Facebook’s ability to distribute news and information. The main allegation...
Qualcomm is coming for Mobileye. Qualcomm has won its fight for Veoneer which will see it expand its offering in automated driving in an attempt to take on Mobileye in a market that is ripe for more competition. Qualcomm and SW Partners are acquiring Veoneer which will then be broken up and the autonomous driving piece sold to Qualcomm and...
Amazon Game Studios sees some traction at last. Amazon has had a torrid time with its fledgling game studio, but its recent release is seeing good traction with gamers but I still think that Amazon’s real aim here is to sell the tools to developers rather than make the games itself. After the cancellation of two of its big-budget games,...
Rivian is not a growth company. It is a start-up. It looks like Rivian has a great product on its hands which combined with its relationship with Amazon puts it in a strong position, but how a company with zero revenues is worth $80bn remains a total mystery. Rivian has filed its S-1 (see here) and while there are...
Google vs. Epic – Precedent not cash.
This is not about money. I think that Google is hoping to use the parts of the previous ruling that were favourable to Apple in order to set a legal precedent that it hopes will enable it to lengthen the time it can maintain a dominant position in-app distribution. Google’s countersuit against Epic Games is for breach of contract after...