from the editor of aseidman.com

Silicon Valley Power Play — When will the Pendulum Swing?

Posted by Ariel Seidman | September 23, 2007

Silicon Valley is fortunate to have leading companies in large industries — media, computer/devices, and micro-processors. With lots of cash on the balance sheets, confident execs, and smart folks on the payroll some of these growth companies (Google, Apple, HP, etc.) in these industries are starting to expand out of their core business. This expansion has been pushing the pendulum to a point where the concentration of power in Silicon Valley may soon hit a wall.

Lets have a quick look at the current lineup of major industries in the Valley and the top players in those industries:

Media companies

• Google
• Yahoo (ok, 9% growth is not exactly hitting it out of the park, but there is untapped potential here — full disclosure: i work at yahoo)

Computer/devices companies (both of these companies are on a tear)

• HP
• Apple

Micro-processor companies

• Intel
• AMD

Well — when times are good folks start to expand beyond their core and these companies are expanding — especially the folks at Google — into the following industries:

• Wireless & Telecom
  • iPhone
  • Gphone
  • Buying wireless spectrum: Apple & Google are each other
  • Undersea fiber: Google
• Entertainment
  • Apple TV & iTunes –> distribution hub for all entertainment
• Energy (alternative forms)
  • Silicon Valley in general is playing a major role in this space — however with the exception of Intel and AMD the companies above are more dabbling then anything else — but $20M here and $30M there and it becomes a bit more then dabbling.

For the past 4 years the pendulum has been swinging in favor of these Bay Area companies but when you expand beyond the core you inevitably start to piss off the legacy players… Once these legacy players start fighting back and the economic slowdown forces these companies to curtail their investments beyond the core will the pendulum reverse?

Yet, Another Apple Launch (Process)

Posted by Ariel Seidman | September 6, 2007

No doubt Apple (AAPL) is on a tear: new iPhone refreshed iMac, refreshed iPods. One sees a similiar story on the software front: refreshed iLife, some new and refreshed iWork. Not only is the quantity pretty impressive, but so is the quality of these new products rolling out. But here is my issue — for such an innovative company with lots of cool and differentiating features their product roll-out process is growing stale. It basically boils down to this:

1. News starts to leak out a few months in advance (this is good to get bloggers all worked up)
2. Apple calls press conference a ~week in advance
3. Steve and team head north (for lesser launches stays on campus) to the Moscone center
4. Steve gets on stage and does a dance using terms like “revolutionary” “seven wonders of the world” “isn’t this cool”
5. Steve introduces a good friend like Jerry, Eric, or Howard
6. Steve introduces a musician like Nora or Tom.
7. Steve walks off.
8. Musician plays
9. Apple site refreshes with all the new cool toys.

Mix it up a bit… here are some ideas:


Venue: I love SF Moscone, but how about Big Sur (breath-taking) or Harlem to show another side of America?

Musician: how about some Outkast or Coldwar Kids.

Friends: how about real people who buy the products Apple is selling?

Pricing: Don’t announce the price at the press release tell people to go to apple.com to checkout the latest pricing so you drive traffic and deeper engagement with the apple site.

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