Episode 42 - The cost of (no) competition...

2023-03-27

Competition is one of those things that, whether you like it or not, makes sense right? If I make bicycles and you start making a better kind of bicycle, my choices are pretty straightforward: start making a better bicycle, start making a cheaper bicycle, or sooner-or-later stop making bicycles… Okay, I know I’ve vastly over-simplifying what can feel like very complex games of market share, dominant messaging, outright morals & ethics… but at its minimum and most basic, we’ve long held on this...

Competition is one of those things that, whether you like it or not, makes sense right?

If I make bicycles and you start making a better kind of bicycle, my choices are pretty straightforward: start making a better bicycle, start making a cheaper bicycle, or sooner-or-later stop making bicycles…

Okay, I know I’ve vastly over-simplifying what can feel like very complex games of market share, dominant messaging, outright morals & ethics… but at its minimum and most basic, we’ve long held on this show that competition is a good thing, especially in the world of technology…

So, as we navigate a world of mass consolidation, roll-up strategies, and the outright stifling of startups in virtually any space… it was well past time to ask ourselves the question, what is the long-term cost of only three meaningful cell phone carries, of two dominant smartphone platforms, of one ring to rule them all… Eh yeah I let that one get away from me, but you get the idea…

In all seriousness, though, was IS the cost… of no competition…

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