Apple’s App Store ecosystem generated $500 billion in 2019
The staggering sum is an estimate of the amount of revenues that flow through Apple’s app and commerce ecosystem, not direct revenues to Apple. The total includes merchandise, travel products, entertainment products, app sales, and content. The figure puts Apple’s app store the size of the GDP of Sweden. CNBC
dis-rup-shun: The economic power of U.S. based BigTech companies continues to amaze, as these engines are big drivers of economic growth, even during this pandemic. As one considers the amazing contributions that Steve Jobs made to the world, one of them was placing Tim Cook at the helm, as Cook has not only continued Apple’s innovations (arguable at a slower pace than Jobs) but has provided even handed leadership in place of Jobs’ firebrand personality.
Walmart acquires technology from CareZone
Walmart’s acquisition of CareZone’s technologies helps the company compete more effectively with Amazon as it continues to ramp up its healthcare strategy. CareZone’s technologies helps people manage their drug prescription dosages and better understand insurance coverage. CNBC
dis-rup-shun: The consumerism of healthcare has been slow in coming, and with Amazon and Walmart racing to innovate the pharmacy industry, the rest of the healthcare industry won’t be far behind. Expect apps that demystify the pharmaceutical lingo, explain the pricing and offer multiple options on the app, provide dosage- based packaging, and that change the way we order and receive prescriptions from the corner pharmacy. Look out doctors and care organizations, you’re next.
FCC casts doubts on the viability of SpaceX’s broadband satellite service
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been hurtling chains of satellites into low orbit for the past year. So far, 500 are orbiting the earth. The Starlink “train” is designed to provide broadband services to all corners of our planet — especially beneficial to rural locations. The FCC has stated that it does not believe that Starlink can meet its latency thresholds, and therefore won’t be eligible for the FCC’s $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund investment. SpaceX has one month to convince the FCC otherwise, or else it will lose a shot at the first awards of the government program. CNET
dis-rup-shun: SpaceX is coming off of a big win after its successful launch of astronauts Bob and Doug two weeks ago, and it is hard to imagine that SpaceX would have launched the Starlink without being certain that its performance will be a game changer. This leads one to wonder if politics have crept into the performance evaluation of the satellite program — but of course that would never happen.
2020 as predicted in April 1975
University of Pennsylvania professor, Lewis Shayon, predicted in 1975 that the world in 2020 would be very different. That world, according to Shayon, would include newspapers that would flash on a computer screen, and could be shared with many people. He went on to predict:
“TV will be the ‘ask-for-it-and-get-it medium. Information, games, education will be created in electronic packages, stored in vast computers and retrieved by individuals to suit their special tastes at their own time preference.”
“Every room will have a TV screen and a finger keyboard. In the kitchen you’ll punch up a film and follow a recipe. Kids will do their homework by checking in with two-way television instruction programs. They will solve math problems with the help of distant computers via the homecom center screen.” Forbes
dis-rup-shun: When one stops to ponder the world we live in, especially through the lens of this 1970s author and professor, it is hard to conceive what our world will look like in 50 more years. Certainly flying taxis, self-driving cars, and medical scanners that diagnose us from home or office (if those still exist) and teleportation will be one of the few technology fantasies yet to turn reality.