Yesterday, I attended the Microsoft ThinkNext event in Tel Aviv, key-noted by Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s Chief Technology Architect. Today, I am at a very well-organized micro-conference on mobile advertising, hosted by the Israel Mobile Association. Though they took place only a few kilometers apart, they could have been on two different planets, and that got [...]
Tagged Internet, Israel, microsoft, Mobile, Software, TechnologyOne of the most painful aspects of working in the VC world is witnessing great start-ups with great teams struggle to raise capital. Sometimes, decisions made two or three years previously can come back to haunt a start-up as it tries to raise additional capital – and, all too often, those mistakes have to do [...]
Tagged Finance, Venture CapitalLast week, T-Mobile Germany made some waves by banning Skype for the iPhone. Some might read this as a long overdue reassertion of operator power, but I disagree. A few months ago, I learned from a reliable source that a major operator was deliberately not shipping a very popular mobile phone model that they knew [...]
Tagged Internet, Mobile, wifiOn Monday, Levi Shapiro gave a great talk on mobile applications and advertising at a roundtable hosted by my firm, Genesis Partners. A few takeaways from the session at Genesis: Mobile 1.0 is over. Among US wireless subscribers, penetration of mobile games (6%), audio (12%), and premium SMS (5%) has been flat or down for [...]
Tagged Apple, AppStore, NokiaBack in September, Google announced that it was adding facial recognition to Picasa. That must have come as something of a blow to the facial recognition start-ups that are hoping to dominate that niche with superior technology. Last week, Google released Latitude, which is an upgrade for Google Maps for Mobile that includes social networking [...]
