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Apple is moving innovation down the stack, Google up

By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 10, 2014, 11:56 AM ET

http://youtu.be/VnhbvS0MBXE

FORTUNE — On Feb. 5, one week before he joined the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz as an in-house consultant, Benedict Evans gave the keynote presentation at a fledgling San Francisco conference called InContext 2014.

It was a variation on his “Mobile Is Eating the World” talk — a high-level PowerPoint show you usually have to pay good money to see. But this version was recorded and posted on YouTube. As of Monday morning, fewer than 6,200 people had seen it.

Let’s see if we can do something about that.

If you’re not familiar with Evans’ blog or the Cubed podcast he produces with Creative Strategies’ Ben Bajarin, he is one of the best of an emerging group of independent analysts who have managed to make a living — and leave a real mark — as freelance industry pundits.

It’s not easy to summarize Evans’ InContext keynote. It was a wide ranging, number-packed presentation that touched on, among other things, how differently Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) approach the problem of discovering where the Internet hides the good stuff.

This is one of those hidden gems. Think of it as a 27-minute graduate seminar (plus Q&A) on how the iPhone changed the world.

PHOTO CAPTION: That’s Evans on the right.  By his side is DFJ’s Tim Draper, who did the Q&A.

LINKS:

  • Keynote: Benedict Evans – InContext 2014
  • Slidedeck: Mobile, Context and Discovery
About the Author
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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