Week in Review - What does it take for startups to beat Apple?

Saturday, December 21, 2019 • By Lucas Matney

Welcome back

Hey everyone. Thank you for welcoming me into your inboxes yet again.

Happy holidays! Last week, I wrote about pet startups and the impending doom they seem to predict.

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The big story

This week, I wrote a year-end review of what happened to all of the augmented reality glasses startups this year. Several of them died and the living ones aren’t looking much better.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Even when Apple telegraphs its hardware strategy, it's proving to be nearly impossible for startups to beat them.

The company's executives have been motioning interest in following their runaway success on mobile with hefty investments in augmented reality, something that has led to the rise of dozens of venture-backed startups hoping to beat Apple to the punch by creating their own AR headsets.

In 2019, this vision collapsed for some of the most recognizable AR startups as reality proved less predictable than executives at these startups had imagined. A trio of shutdowns this year painted the root cause — overreach, framed by high burn rates and an overly optimistic attitude toward respective software ecosystems taking off.

Spoiler: my prediction earlier this year of a rough 2019 is exactly what happened.”

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Trends of the week

Here are a few big news items from big companies, with green links to all the sweet, sweet added context:

Facebook might want to build its own Android
Facebook seems to be serious about staying in the hardware business with Oculus and its Portal hardware, but the company doesn’t want to be shackled to Android. The company has hired a Windows veteran to explore building a new operating system for the company, The Information reports.
Smart Home giants partner
Amazon, Apple, Google and the Zigbee Alliance are leading the charge to create an open source smart home standard. “The Connected Home over IP project seeks to create a connectivity standard designed to increase compatibility across companies and devices.”
Facebook buys a cloud gaming startup
Google, Microsoft and Sony are all obsessing over how they can bring gamers into the world of cloud streaming, but now it seems Facebook is showing some interest as well. This week, the company confirmed that they had bought Madrid-based PlayGiga.