Why is 5G important?

(Photo credit @blackodc)

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m an Apple fangirl. The phones & devices are beautiful and the MacOS is just completely intuitive to me. And yes, I had 2 phones when I worked at Google: my personal iPhone + my work Android phone. And yes, I took heat for having both (but I wasn’t alone - many colleagues did too!) So I am always on the lookout for Apple device announcements. 

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Last week Apple debuted its newest line of iPhone 12 in 4 flavors (mini, regular, pro, pro max). Lots of great improvements in the camera, the processor, the display and color choices -- but the big news was that it’s 5G-capable. Verizon was also on stage to announce their new 5G low-band network (though T-Mobile had already launched their version in Dec 2019 and A&T’s version came out in Jul 2020). And Samsung had already launched 5G capable phones 18 months ago. 

So why is Apple’s launch important? Apple tends to wait to launch a technology until it thinks the market is ready for it. Their iPhone 12 launch may signal to the major carriers that it’s time to improve the patchy 5G coverage as the 5G usage may start to take off with both major smartphone makers now in the game. This launch may also signal that 

But what is 5G and why should you care? If we ever want self-driving cars to be a reality, we need 5G networks or faster to ensure that the lightning-fast decisions are made & communicated back to vehicles. 5G can also help support the vast network of connected devices, the streaming services for music/video/gaming and other areas like telehealth.  Wired has a really great 5G primer that outlines what 5G is and why its growth is critical to the growth of tech in the US. 5G promises to ultimately allow 10gigabit per second downloads (which is 600 times as fast as 4G services) -- but we are a loooong way from that level of performance and coverage across most of the US. Only certain city blocks in certain cities have that speed -- and it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the carriers to truly expand coverage.

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What happens when Hollywood meets Silicon Valley?

(Photo credit @glenncarstenspeters)

Like many of you, I was excited to ‘cut the cord’ years ago when I joined Google and got my first Chromecast as a Christmas gift. I thought it would help me save time by not seeing ads and by scheduling time to watch what I wanted, when I wanted. I’m not quite sure it’s turned out that way as the proliferation of streaming devices, apps, and content providers continues to increase. 

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The early leaders in streaming TV & movies emerged in early 2007, with Netflix’s launch of its streaming service, and Hulu launching in early 2008. Before that, your options to watch content “when you wanted” was to rent VHS or DVDs from a Blockbuster store or Redbox kiosk, or have Netflix mail you DVDs. Apple iTunes and Amazon video-on-demand were in place before Netflix, but only available as downloads (which often meant you had to purchase the show and wait an hour for it to download back in the low internet bandwidth days). 

Streaming content offered a whole new way for Netflix and others to really compete with TV channels in that it was actually available “now” - though their content selection was very limited at the beginning. Hollywood was happy to unload older TV shows and movies to Netflix on the cheap, but didn’t realize it allowed Netflix & its algorithms to learn huge amounts of information about viewer consumption habits. And then in 2013, Netflix launched its own original content in ‘House of Cards’ and the streaming wars (and Netflix bingeing) really began. (Really good podcast on the history of Netflix from Vox. Fun fact: the year Netflix launched original content, Blockbuster closed its last store). 

Once Netflix showed its hand with ‘House of Cards’ & started launching more and more original content in the US and abroad, the rest of Hollywood woke up and tried to compete. Disney+ has been one of the star competitors because of the strength of its brand and the content it develops, with HBO struggling with confusing offerings. The vertical integration approach is also becoming an obvious competitive strategy and some players are better at one end (content development) vs the other (devices). AppleTV+ is a great device but the content is lacking. Quibi is a super-expensive disaster. There was an interesting partnership development last week with Roku (who builds devices) and Comcast (who provides content and distribution). Comcast owns NBCUniversal and thus its new streaming service Peacock. 

The problem for me as a consumer is: by avoiding a cable subscription which jammed all sorts of channels into a package that wasn’t suited to me, I think I am now just subscribing to multiple different streaming services that ultimately cost more AND cause me more hassle to find what I want to watch. Do I dare ask for less choice again??

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Do you know why it’s called ‘Silicon Valley?’

(Photo credit @viazavier)

I would wager that most people have no idea why the Bay Area is actually called Silicon Valley. Do you? I’ll give you a hint: look down at whatever device you are holding to read this newsletter. Silicon is at the heart of most electronic devices, from smartphones to factory equipment to appliances. Semiconductors (aka integrated circuits, aka microchips) are what power all of the electronic devices you own, and are typically made from silicon. 

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Fun fact: my birthday is tomorrow (Sep 19). Best birthday ever as I share it with Soledad O’Brien, Jeremy Irons & Jimmy Fallon. It’s also the anniversary of the day in 1957 that 8 engineers founded Fairchild Semiconductor, whose innovations in transistor technology launched the tech revolution and spawned Silicon Valley. Those 8 engineers are hilariously called the ‘Traitorous Eight’ for leaving their Nobel-prize-winning employer -- but their new company ended up incubating future tech giants like Intel and AMD. Gordon Moore (one of the 8 who also later co-founded Intel) developed the uber-famous Moore’s Law, “the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years.” This law has influenced the projected rate of production of electronic devices for decades and helped predict that the smartphone in your pocket would become more powerful than a room full of 1969 mainframe computers. 

So much of the news today focuses on the software that people utilize on their devices -- but it’s critical to realize: software is only so innovative for users because the devices themselves continue to get smaller and smaller -- and that’s due to the ever-evolving chip technology. This week, US gaming company Nvidia announced the biggest semiconductor deal ever, by spending $40B to purchase Softbank’s chip division ARM (a UK based company). (Great article on why Nvidia CEO made the purchase.) The locations are important as there has been a shift in chip manufacturing to China in recent years, with companies from Apple to Nvidia to Qualcomm all relying on chips manufactured in China/Taiwan. With a growing trade war between the US and China (and specific export restrictions being targeted towards Chinese chip manufacturers like SMIC), the US tech companies are very worried that their chip supply chain will be negatively affected. The US chip industry wants $50B to help keep chip manufacturing in the US and still remain competitive with Asia. And investors are now starting to keep more of an eye on semiconductor stocks vs just the FAANGs.

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