The Supplier Differentiation SpectrumConsider the six companies I mentioned above: Facebook, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and Microsoft.The degree of differentiation of tech company suppliers variesThese companies exist on a spectrum in terms of supplier differentiation (and, by extension, supplier power):Facebook has commoditized suppliers more... See more

A subtext to last week’s article, Tech’s Two Philosophies, was the idea that there is a difference between Aggregators and Platforms; this was the key section:It is no accident that Apple and Microsoft, the two “bicycle of the mind” companies, were founded only a year apart, and for decades had broadly similar business models: sure, Microsoft... See more