Parth Detroja - Swipe to Unlock: The Primer on Technology and Business Strategy

1. Chapter 1.
   Software Development
2. 1. 
      Why does Google make Android free to phone manufacturers?
3. Chapter 3.
   App Economics
4. Chapter 4.
   The Internet
5. Chapter 5.
   Cloud Computing
   1. 
      Why does Google make Android free to phone manufacturers?
6. Chapter 6.
   Big Data
7. Chapter 7.
   Hacking & Security
8. 1. 
      Why does Google make Android free to phone manufacturers?
9. Chapter 9.
   Business Motives
10. Chapter 10.
    Emerging Markets
11. Chapter 11.
    Technology Policy
    1. 
       Why does Google make Android free to phone manufacturers?
12. Chapter 12.
    Trends Going Forward

The Primer on Technology and Business Strategy

Neel Mehta

Aditya Agashe

Parth Detroja

Swipe to Unlock

Copyright 2019, 2018, 2017 Belle Applications, Inc.

Published by Belle Applications, Inc.

swipetounlock.com

3rd Edition, 4th Revision (November 2019)

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

The information contained herein is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Every attempt has been made to provide accurate, up-to-date, reliable, and complete information. No warranties of any kind are expressed or implied. Readers acknowledge that the authors are not engaging in the rendering of legal, financial, medical, or professional advice.

By reading this document, the reader agrees that under no circumstances are we responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, which are incurred as a result of the use of information contained within this document, including, but not limited to, errors, omissions, or inaccuracies.

All opinions expressed herein are solely the views of the authors and not those of their employers.

ISBN-13: 978-1976182198

ISBN-10: 1976182190

To my friends for their constant inspiration, and my family for being my rock Neel

To my family and friends, thanks for supporting my passion for business and helping me push past my fears to embrace entrepreneurship Adi

To my friends and family for their never-ending support, and my mentor Deborah Streeter for believing in my vision, which helped make this book possible Parth

When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. Thats a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people will use Thats maybe the most important thing. Its to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and youre just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it Once you learn that, youll never be the same again.

Steve Jobs

(who, by the way, never wrote any code for Apple)

No matter what you do for a living, its become essential to understand technology. Doctors are now using artificial intelligence to diagnose patients.

So, how do you learn to understand technology?

It often feels like you have to be a master coder to understand the barrage of concepts that techies talk about: SaaS, APIs, SSL, cloud computing, and augmented reality, to name a few. And it often feels like you have to have an MBA to make sense of the daily deluge of tech news: startups, acquisitions, app launches, rumors, you name it.

But we think anyone can understand tech, no matter their background. We think the most important technology topics from the nuts and bolts of the internet to the business strategies of Facebook and Uber can be explained in plain, simple English.

Swipe to Unlock is a primer on technology and business strategy. In this book, well use real-world examples to break down the software, hardware, and business strategies that power the tech world and give you the tools to start understanding, analyzing, and shaping tech yourself. No prior knowledge is assumed.

Each section in Swipe to Unlock is a real-world case study, posing a question you might have had yourself like how Spotify recommends songs, how self-driving cars work, and why Amazon offers free shipping with Prime even though it loses them money.

In each section, well explain the what the technology concepts like big data and machine learning and then the why the business reasons why companies would use these technologies in the first place. Well draw on our experience working as product managers at tech companies large and small to give you insights into how the world of tech operates.

By the end of this book, we aim to unlock your ability to think like a technologist. Well train you to think through tech topics you encounter in the future: how the technology works, why it was made that way, where the money comes from, and whether or not itll succeed. While specific apps and companies come and go, we hope that the core concepts youll learn in Swipe to Unlock will be useful for a long time to come.

Swipe to Unlock aims to be accessible to people of all skill levels. Whether youre a casual observer or a business professional, we think youll find something useful and interesting.

If you dont have a coding background but want to break into product management, business development, marketing, or other non-engineering roles at tech companies, youll have to be able to explain things like artificial intelligence, algorithms, and big data to teammates and clients. And to shape your companys business strategies youll have to know which business strategies have been successful (or not) in the past and why. Swipe to Unlocks case studies and plain-English explanations of tech concepts should help you with both.

If youre a software engineer but want to move toward product management roles, well teach you about the business side of the equation: ads, monetization, acquisitions, and the like.

If youre an entrepreneur or a tech leader, you know its not enough to just build a great product. Well use real-world case studies to build up your understanding of tech and intuition of business strategy so you can figure out how to make your company thrive and speak intelligently with investors and employees.

If youre a student of tech and business, Swipe to Unlocks case studies will fit right in with your classes. Youll learn what has made companies like Amazon succeed and why products like Blackberry failed, and youll get a feel for how tech companies have handled tech policy, disruption, and emerging markets.

Even if you dont work at a tech company, chances are your company can use tech to stay ahead of the curve. Predictive analytics, software-as-a-service, A/B testing youll learn about these hot terms and how even non-tech companies have used them to grow their businesses.