The Innovators
March 24, 2011

Color: Brilliant or Bubble?

Posted by Max Chafkin at 3:47 PM

I spent 20 minutes at lunch playing with a cool new iPhone app called Color, which automatically shares photos you've taken on your phone with other people who are close by. What's the point of this? Why can't you just show your phone to the person sitting next to you? Why do I need to look at pictures of the very room I'm standing in?

I don't know. And neither does anyone else, it seems. "It's difficult to explain what Color does with a bullet list of features," admits TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid, who spends over 1000 words on the task. It's generally not a good sign when it takes that long to describe a company's value proposition, but Kinkaid tries gamly.

Nguyen [Color's founder] has visions of fundamentally changing some aspects of social interaction and local discovery with the app, which he considers part of the so-called Post-PC movement. Using all of the data being collected (remember, the app is taking advantage of all of your phone's sensors), Color hopes to eventually start recommending nearby points of interest, and maybe even interesting people.

Got it? Now here's the kicker. This brand new product with no revenue stream has already raised $41 million from some of the biggest names in venture capital. The apparent disconnect has people calling a "bubble," which seems fair given the amount of money that's going into an unproven company.

On the other hand, Twitter seemed even more useless when it launched five years ago, albeit with a lot less money than Color has.

For those who've downloaded the free app (who needs to charge money when you have $41 million in the bank?) and have had a chance to use it: What do you think? What's the business here?

March 14, 2011

Twitter's Founding Moment

Posted by Max Chafkin at 1:55 PM

Hard to believe, but Twitter is already five years old. To commemorate the occassion, the site's creator and Twitter's former CEO, Jack Dorsey has been retelling the company's founding story (through his Twitter page, natch). Here's an early exchange with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone:

  • me: Biz! How goes?  We're starting work on the twttr
  • implementation today.
  • Biz: really?! NICE
  • me: yeah, i roped
  • florian in.  i think we'll be able to get most of it up and working by
  • the end of this week.  then i'll do the sms and style side next week.
  • along with ajax stuff.
  • Biz: two weeks and we'll have twttr.
  • yay!
  • me: yeah!  should be pretty quick.  have all of florian's time
  • and all of mine.
  • Biz: oh man that's awesome
  • Biz: i've looking
  • longingly at my empty sms on my phone throuhout the panels
  • Biz: sucks that teen people has the shortcode
  • me: i know!  that's going to
  • be tough.  doesn't help that the code also spells TXT
  • Biz: hmm
  • yah

Dorsey's onto a new company, Square, which is the subject of a very nice Vanity Fair piece. And if you can get enough of Twitter lore, check out the profile I wrote on the company three years ago, when the top source of revenue at Twitter was subletting empty desks in its office.

March 2, 2011

Steve Jobs Announces iPad 2

Posted by Max Chafkin at 1:22 PM

Steve Jobs just wrapped up another one of his trademark announcements and it's now official: There is a new iPad. The bottom line, via the New York Times, is that the new iPad is thinner, lighter, faster, and has two cameras—all for the same price as before. Gizmodo calls it "a completely new beast." Also there's a sweet new line of cases!

But as interesting as the iPad 2 will be for app developers who are probably already plotting ways to make use of those cameras and the faster processor, the real news is how successful the tablet, which was widely mocked when it was released a year ago, has been.

According to the Times, Jobs said that some 100 million iBooks—the company's e-book format—have been downloaded. The App Store, which includes both the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, has paid out $2 billion to developers. There were 15 million iPads sold in 2010.