Fire-Wired Blog

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com When the application development revolution hit a few products were almost immediately available: games, calculators, web browsers, messaging apps, business software and organization tools. The odd thing is both iOS and Android had all the obvious applications satiated by third party developers, not by Apple or Google. Maybe the most foolish software necessity lesson both companies learned was in the organization world, when the note taking application EverNote roared out to almost instantaneous success. For as long as there’s been recorded language, humanity has sought out mud and wall, paint and canvas, quill and parchment, pen and paper, or keyboard and screen to jot down thoughts. In the world of “There’s an app for that,” Evernote is easily the default note taking app. Across Android, iOS, and Windows over 100 million users are dedicated to taking notes, making lists, clipping content from the internet, saving emails, and...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Remember that period in the nineties when it seemed like cars and trucks had fallen in love with steroids? SUV sales shot through the roof and powerful cars regained their prominence all before gas prices climbed the to unprecedented heights. Oddly enough, mobile technology took an almost completely opposite path. Cell phones went from comically large bricks that could barely fit into briefcases to tiny flip phones that could easily be lost. Just like the gas prices that stymied SUV sales, a certain innovation pushed consumers to call for a reversal of the phone shrinking trend. What turned the tide? The iPhone of course. Giving the iPhone all the credit is not quite fair. It was truly the ability to view photos and streaming content via wireless devices. As wireless connections became faster, the thirst for streaming media grew at the same pace. The problem was the first iPhone’s 3.5 inch screen was not designed for HD videos...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com One of the most confounding thoughts in the history of American business is the fact Coca Cola could have bought Pepsi in the 1930s. The biggest soda maker in the world at one point could have ended its chief rival. Now that’s not to say another company wouldn’t have surged up and become what Pepsi is today, but Coke versus Pepsi is the go-to reference for blood rival businesses. That would be like Ford buying Chevy during it's bankruptcy, HBO buying Showtime at any point, or Apple buying BlackBerry today. Problem is Apple might have missed its window to rid itself of BlackBerry, as the fallen smartphone giant is clawing it's way back to relevance. Before Apple changed the mobile device world with the iPhone, there was RIM’s, or Research in Motion, BlackBerry. At it's height in 2006, the BlackBerry and all smartphones were mostly business tools meant for sending emails and scheduling meetings with it's famous keybo...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com One of the fastest ways in business to build your brand is by franchising. Restaurants, hotels, retail stores, hardware stores, car rental companies, and so many others have built their fortunes on back of others hustling their wares. For a tech equivalent look no further than Microsoft, the behemoth of tech franchising. Instead of vertically integrating it's entire production line from software, hardware, manufacturing, shipping, all the way to sales, Microsoft has only worried about writing the software and left the rest to business partners. It made Microsoft unspeakably rich and helped build up countless manufacturing giants like Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Lenovo. Now after decades of franchising, Microsoft has decided to try something new with its Surface Book Pro line of laptops. Franchising its Windows operating system and Office Suite of software made so much sense for Microsoft. The more companies that licensed Micros...