Comments on: Apple squared, (four)squared

By: Lonny Salberg

Lonny Salberg — Mon, 07 May 2012 21:10:39 +0000

Techie hipsters. Definitely. Yelp is better than FourSquare. But both are for geeks and travel/foodie types. And occasional tourists. Don’t fall for it, Apple. Even the author says “Hey go spend YOUR $10 billion dollars on something that, well, may not be worth that much”. It isn’t his money.

And Square? Clever idea that is nowhere in the wild yet to any degree of prominence. No way Apple will buy something that requires an awful yucky box sticking out of their beautiful device. The Starbucks app is way better and works better. That model, anyway. Pre-register for a particular company, pop open the app, let the vendors clunky laser scan my phone (and don’t you even think of touching my iPhone, barista!), and the transaction is paid. Apple’s POP solution at their retail stores is excellent, too. Who needs Square? It’s a nice idea and alternative and that is where it will always stay. Until it dies and goes away. Or some fool pays hundreds of millions for it.

Local check-in is way over-rated right now. Reviews are good and always welcome, but whose going to pay for the Duke of Whatever? Lame. I hate that Yelp doesn’t let us turn that feature off.

Just because you CAN do something with technology, doesn’t mean that everyone should.

By: Mike Orren

Mike Orren — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:06:23 +0000

Sans the acquisitions, this was a strategy I proposed to Steve Jobs two years ago — and was pleasantly surprised to get a response: http://justbeamazing.com/2010/06/14/the-currently-lost-opportunity-with-iads/

By: John Fricker

John Fricker — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:31:26 +0000

Square is useless to Apple. Dwolla is what they should buy.

By: Petri

Petri — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:52:44 +0000

Square yes, although they use the old-fashioned and insecure magnetic stripe which is quite fast becoming obsolete (at least outside of the US). There are other options like iZettle which take a chip card and do pretty much the same — so perhaps Apple could just “re-invent the wheel”.

Foursquare no, it will be gone before there’s any real business on it.

By: kempsnews

kempsnews — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:33:10 +0000

Square is a great move for Apple. The device is a snap for Apple. Apple had similar tech(pos that attachs to mobile devices) in their stores prior to the appearance of Square so I wonder about that.

FourSquare would be a foolish move away from the focused business model that has done so well for Apple.

By: kempsnews

kempsnews — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:50:35 +0000

Square is a great call for Apple but FourSquare is as valuable as its made out to be in this article. Apple wouldn’t need FourSquare to do the magic tracking you’re describing.

By: ToddbboT

ToddbboT — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:54:03 +0000

Apple is moving more and more broad market. Even desktops are becoming “small” in their revenues. You and I may understand the pitch here but just think about explaining it to your Dad or you non-tech brother/ coworker. As Apple gains size, things that seem like great projects for smaller companies just fail to move the needle.

By: Rick M

Rick M — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:07:33 +0000

Very bad idea about acquiring foursquare. checkins fad is over.

By: Michael Charest

Michael Charest — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:48:23 +0000

Foursquare might be popular with the “check-in” crowd in urban environments but having 750,000 active and paying local merchants versus 750,000 merchants in the system are two different things.

By: Greg G

Greg G — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:46:44 +0000

Its worth $10b just to acquire two visionary up and coming CEOs; something Apple needs more than tech right now.