Apple Arcade is a game changer
Apple Arcade goes live today along with iOS 13. The game service offers thousands of titles, much like the App Store itself, for a flat monthly fee of $5.00, and puts an end to constant ads and endless solicitations to upgrade to the paid version of a game. For game developers, it offers a massive channel into enormous markets but, like the App Store, a much smaller revenue per user stream. Wired
dis-rup-shun: For all but the most avid gamers who need to own the latest and most unique games Apple has created a way to corner the casual games business. Apple Arcade games offer a better iOS compliant experience, making them visually and audibly better, without the significant annoyance of in app advertising. Many casual gamers are addicted to one or two titles and can be easily lured into a $5 per month expenditure, opening up new worlds of endless fun and focus.
Are you ready for a 360 degree camera?
Ricoh’s Theta Z1 is a small, very portable, two lens camera device for about $1000 that enables amateurs to take high quality 360 degree pictures. The dual 1 inch high quality sensors result in pro quality 360 images and videos. TechCrunch
dis-rup-shun: The smartphone wars, as often discussed, are being waged on camera quality and the definitions of consumer photography, consequently, are being pushed to new places. Did you ever imagine you might want to take a 360 image of the family at the Thanksgiving dinner table, or capture not only your child’s amazing performance on the soccer field, but the electricity of the crowds on the sidelines? AR viewers, despite being a very niche-y product, will be bolstered by consumers who want a really immersive way to enjoy their own 360 photography. This development begs the question: which smartphone maker will be the first to implement 360 photography in its phone device?
Vivint Smart Home goes public
Through a reverse merger with a Softbank-backed company, Mosaic, Vivint will be publicly traded with a valuation of $5.6 billion. Blackstone Group acquired Vivint in 2012 for $2 billion. Mosaic Acquisition Corp.’s CEO is David Maura, who is CEO of holding company Spectrum brands whose products include a number of lock companies including Kwikset and Black and Decker locks.
dis-rup-shun: Why are traditional, incumbent home security companies so valuable? For several reasons. One, they are cash machines that bill hundreds of thousands of households and businesses every month. Two, the home security hardware and software platform is a platform for many new home services and products, if vendors can just figure out which ones are most valuable to consumers. Maura, by finding synergies between Spectrum Brands’ products, Softbank’s many tech investments, and Vivint’s customer base, can build a powerful channel into the home that offers integrations (and synergies) not yet enjoyed by Google and Amazon. There is something brewing here.
Datadog hot cloud metrics software IPO jumps 39%
Datadog creates software to help companies monitor the health and operations of their cloud resources, either in their own data centers or third party services. The company competes with Amazon, Splunk, Elastic, Cisco and others. Its share price reflects 41 times 12 month trailing earnings. CNBC
dis-rup-shun: The future of computing, or shall we say the present and future of computing, is in the cloud. While the cloud giants such as Amazon and Microsoft are building bigger and better clouds and cloud tools, nimble experts such as Datadog are building better tool kits and riding on the coat tails of the giants. It’s a great strategy and a textbook play from Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma. Great investments can be found in the cloud.