It's a good thing that the only things that apparently matter in the world are (1) social networks, (2) apps for middle-men, and (3) luxuries for people with too much money.

Specifically, I think, likely the disruptive force for Amazon, who’s been the most disruptive force in retail in America, is going to be Uber. It came to me, when I took an Uber ride in southern Florida and it was $4. In Chicago, you can hire a car and a driver for 90 cents a mile. If you spent the same amount on Amazon, as Amazon does on its shipping services, that’s seven billion miles of flexible delivery in the U.S.

Wat. Uber is cheap because Uber subsidizes their rides in new areas and relies on surge pricing to make up the difference in pay to drivers. If you spent $7b on delivery via Uber cars, you have a bunch of cars without adequate storage, traveling more frequently back to their source for pick-ups. I can't imagine what society is more efficient with a hundred separate cars doing a task that can already be done by one truck. Past that, the warehouse technology wouldn't be changed one bit.

The other big trend in retail is something pretty boring. People won’t talk about click and collect, ordering online, picking up in-store. It ends up that stores are fantastic and flexible warehouses.

... In the U.S. we’re well behind.

More wats

The bottom line is the mobile economy is not friendly to Google’s business model.

Who owns Android again?

I’m going to fly through this. The first year, Apple’s going to be the biggest watch company in the world. Who does this hurt? It hurts everybody. Not just watch companies, but all aspirational price point brands. Teen retailers have been getting killed. They’re staring at their navel. Is it a product? Is it a brand problem? It’s an Apple problem. These brands get hurt.

Oldly enough, the most sane thing the author wrote. It's one possibility, the other is complete failure. Only time will tell.

Ok, I'm a consumer, not an economist. He uses words like "disruptive" and "differentiate." These words don't mean anything to me.

Some of their differentiations are one-click ordering and incredible same-day fulfillment

Nonsense. I buy from Amazon because they sell everything. I'm willing to pay for 2-day shipping because of that. I never use one-click or same-day.

Over the last nine months Amazon’s shipping costs have gone up more than 40%, which is not sustainable

That's the single valid argument I see. But it's missing some necessary data. (1) is there evidence their shipping costs will continue to increase? (2) are shipping costs only going up for them, and no one else? Both of those seem rather unlikely.

Amazon not only has everything, but they're able to deliver it. OR is huge. Amazon is winning because their Operations, not because "one-click." Apple is where it is today because they got OR right; Tim Cook is an OR genius.

Can Uber "disrupt" the sales and distribution market? Maybe. But I'll take Amazon's OR over a startup which is being brutally attacked on all sides by the establishment.

The above list reads like one of those "which one doesn't look like the others?" type of IQ test questions. Apple is far and away the most stable of the four, because Apple makes shit. Making shit is still important in our world, no matter where VC sticks their ungodly amounts of money.