Ponchik News: Design+ Strategy

Following Google IO announcement last week, Ben Thomspon from Stratechery wrote a great long-read post about two tech philosophies: 1) tech as an amplifier of human ability to complete tasks - Microsoft, Apple, and 2) tech as a source of task completion whatsoever - Google, Facebook. Very intriguing observation:

“There is certainly an argument to be made that these two philosophies arise out of their historical context; it is no accident that Apple and Microsoft, the two “bicycle of the mind” companies, were founded only a year apart, and for decades had broadly similar business models: sure, Microsoft licensed software, while Apple sold software-differentiated hardware, but both were and are at their core personal computer companies and, by extension, platforms.

In a platform business model 3rd parties attract customers

Google and Facebook, on the other hand, are products of the Internet, and the Internet leads not to platforms but to aggregators. While platforms need 3rd parties to make them useful and build their moat through the creation of ecosystems, aggregators attract end users by virtue of their inherent usefulness and, over time, leave suppliers no choice but to follow the aggregators’ dictates if they wish to reach end users.

In the aggregator business model the aggregator owns customers and suppliers follow.”

https://stratechery.com/2018/techs-two-philosophies/