Emil Protalinski

Editor @Techmeme and EPro Strategies
formerly Executive Editor @VentureBeat
other bylines @GeekWire @TheNextWeb @ZDNet @CNET @TechSpot @ArsTechnica

[Tom Loverro @tomloverro]

Warning! VC narrative violation 🚨

99% of board meetings are a massive waste of time & resources.

🧵@attentiveHQ founder @BrianCLong + I reveal:

Why CEOs shouldn’t keep their board in the dark & how to turn board meetings from CEO pageantry into the MOST valuable 3hrs/quarter

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

Google is terrified of OpenAI.

Are its worries misplaced?

A critique by Google senior software engineer Luke Sernau argues that open-source AI is the company's real threat, not OpenAI.

Betting on open source has helped Google take on Microsoft before...
https://t.co/fJHKJbPsle

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

$AAPL Q2 iPhone revenue

2012: $22.3 billion
2013: $23.0 billion
2014: $26.1 billion
2015: $40.3 billion
2016: $32.9 billion
2017: $33.2 billion
2018: $38.0 billion
2019: $31.1 billion
2020: $29.0 billion
2021: $47.9 billion
2022: $50.6 billion
2023: $51.3 billion

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

$AAPL Q2 2023

Revenue down 3% to $94.8 billion
Net income down 3% to $24.2 billion
iPhone revenue up 2%
Mac revenue down 31%
iPad revenue down 13%
Wearables/Home/Accessories revenue down 1%
Services revenue up 5%

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

$AAPL Q2 revenue

2011: $24.7 billion
2012: $39.2 billion
2013: $43.6 billion
2014: $45.6 billion
2015: $58.0 billion
2016: $50.6 billion
2017: $52.9 billion
2018: $61.1 billion
2019: $58.0 billion
2020: $58.3 billion
2021: $89.6 billion
2022: $97.3 billion
2023: $94.8 billion

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

This is a direct response to Google inventing Transformers, or the T in ChatGPT

[Techmeme @Techmeme]

Sources: Google, a prolific publisher of AI papers, plans to share them only after the research work is turned into products, due to competition with OpenAI (Washington Post)

https://t.co/SW501KrHNd
https://t.co/evl393oLS4

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

Microsoft Chief Economist Michael Schwarz says AI "clearly" must be regulated.

Why?

"I am confident AI will be used by bad actors, and yes it will cause real damage."

But he says lawmakers should wait until AI causes "real harm" before enacting rules.

https://t.co/nFYPoBuRZl

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

Microsoft shoots itself in the foot, again.

Outlook and Teams will soon ignore the default browser and open certain links in Edge side by side.

Edge is arguably a better browser than Chrome.

But Microsoft pissing off its users ensures Edge keeps losing.
https://t.co/Xnzv39H3US

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

Apple and Google have submitted a proposed industry specification to help combat unwanted location tracking by Bluetooth devices.

They're asking for input from other companies.

Tech companies love to launch first and deal with the consequences later.

https://t.co/OnXYr39DmG

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

Automattic drops Twitter.

The company's WordPress plugin JetPack will no longer automatically tweet blog posts.

Why?

"Twitter decided, on short notice, to dramatically change the terms and pricing of the Twitter API."

43.2% of websites use WordPress.

https://t.co/xUre1pMMp1

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie has crossed $1 billion globally at the box office.

Not only is it 2023's first movie to do so, it's also now the most financially successful video game movie yet.

All in just 26 days -- not even a month!

Nostalgia wins again.
https://t.co/oTnWjDtft4

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

Spoiler: they wrote the bill with ChatGPT.

[Techmeme @Techmeme]

Interviews with lawmakers and sources reveal how, over just 11 days, MEPs created a draft bill on generative AI, a rare example of quick consensus in the EU (Reuters)

https://t.co/kpgp4qXbme
https://t.co/Gf6LKVX4Ry

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

Arm is going public.

The IPO is set to be 2023's biggest.

The UK chip design firm reportedly filed to go public on the Nasdaq, seeking to raise $8 billion to $10 billion.

For its part, the Softbank subsidiary says the size and range hasn't been set yet.
https://t.co/VvPxs5ETVK

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

@BexelInitiative oh definitely macroeconomic pressure

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

Cloud spending grew 19% YoY to $63 billion in Q1 2023.

That's a lot for a big market, but it's quite the slowdown from the 32% growth in Q1 2022.

Amazon, Microsoft, and Google own 65% of the market.

They'll do everything to keep it that way by charging less in the techcession.

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

@MartinSFP great minds https://t.co/iuJwavEfKH

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

whoopsie

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

whoopsie

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

Bluesky: https://t.co/aXQ7BUs8IM

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

Sony sold 6.3 million PS5 consoles in Q4 2022, up 215% year-over-year.

Sony has now sold over 38.4 million PS5s since the November 2020 launch.

The PS5 still has a long way to go.

PS5: 38.4 million
PS4: 117.2 million
PS3: 87.4 million
PS2: 155+ million
PS: 102.49 million

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

$AMZN employees

Q1 2020: 840,400
Q2 2020: 876,800
Q3 2020: 1,125,300
Q4 2020: 1,298,000
Q1 2021: 1,271,000
Q2 2021: 1,335,000
Q3 2021: 1,468,000
Q4 2021: 1,608,000
Q1 2022: 1,622,000
Q2 2022: 1,523,000
Q3 2022: 1,544,000
Q4 2022: 1,541,000
Q1 2023: 1,465,000

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

$AMZN Q1 2023:

Revenue up 9% to $127.4 billion
Net income of $3.2 billion, vs. a $3.8 billion loss
AWS up 16%
Subscriptions up 15%
Advertising services up 21%
North American sales up 11%
International sales up 1%
Employees down 10% to 1,465,000

[Emil Protalinski @EPro]

$AMZN AWS revenue growth

Q3 2018: 48%
Q4 2018: 45%
Q1 2019: 41%
Q2 2019: 37%
Q3 2019: 35%
Q4 2019: 34%
Q1 2020: 33%
Q2 2020: 29%
Q3 2020: 29%
Q4 2020: 28%
Q1 2021: 32%
Q2 2021: 37%
Q3 2021: 39%
Q4 2021: 40%
Q1 2022: 37%
Q2 2022: 33%
Q3 2022: 27%
Q4 2022: 20%
Q1 2023: 17%