Can Turtles Fly?

Something that has always puzzled me is how software app developers on mobile platforms (phones, tablets) make money. Some mass market products, such as games, make money off large volume and/or advertising but how about all the others? Writing for Stratechery , Ben Thompson illustrates the difficulty faced by app developers, particularly those developing productivity software (bolds by me): Paper is a transformative, device-defining app, and has been awarded accordingly by both Apple and the design industry . According to App Annie , as of June 21, Paper ranked 7th in the Productivity category according to downloads (119th overall after a recent jump), and 4th in revenue (108th overall). By every visible measure, FiftyThree, the makers of Paper, are the definition of an app store success story... But underneath the surface, things aren't so rosy: The problem for Paper is the same for all productivity apps in the App Store: there is no way to monetize your existing...

(source: Facebook ) As bizarre as this sounds, one of the most valuable innovations in technology over the last several decades is Facebook's "Like" button. That's what has propelled the company to a galaxy-orbit valuation for its forthcoming initial public offering, filed Wednesday. This is not only because the word "like" is, like, the identifying word of an entire generation. It's because computing has evolved beyond just taking directions from humans—and instead is cozying up to us and sniffing out our emotions and intent. — Andy Kessler, Wall Street Journal Three decades ago, if someone had told you that a company that didn't make any physical products, had existed for less than a decade, and had less than 3,000 employees would be worth $100 billion, would you have believed it? But here we are, three decades later, and stock market participants appear ready to award a $100 billion valuation to Facebook (FB). Are they crazy? Is ...