One App Store to Rule Them All

Apple has always maintained it knows what’s best for its customers. But now governments and developers are trying to change the way Apple runs its highly profitable iPhone App Store. What happens if Apple can no longer hold its tight grip on the iPhone and the way we interact with the world? Hosted by Peter Kafka (@pkafka) Enjoyed this episode?...

Oct 2021

Apple Saved Music. Why Not TV?

Back in the early 2000s, file sharing services like Napster devastated the music industry. Steve Jobs threw it a lifeline with the iTunes Store, offering people an easy way to download songs legally. That saved the music industry and made Apple a dominant player in the music biz...for a time. Twenty years later, the television industry is going through...

Oct 2021

Apple's China Problem

Much of Apple’s success is built around its relationship with China, which is both one of Apple’s largest markets as well as where most of its products are manufactured. It’s a complicated relationship that has seen Apple make compromises with an authoritarian regime over privacy and human rights in pursuit of huge profits. This episode is produced...

Oct 2021

"He's No Steve Jobs"

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple and infused it with his love of product design and attention to detail. His successor, Tim Cook, is widely perceived as lacking Jobs’ vision and innovation. But he managed to do something Jobs never could: make Apple the most valuable company on the planet.So who are these two men, and how have their leadership styles shaped...

Oct 2021

How Apple Got Its Groove Back

In 1997 Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy and falling far behind its biggest competitor, Microsoft. But that all changed when Apple started building revolutionary new devices that strayed from its roots as a computer company. The iPod and the iPhone propelled Apple from an underdog to the company that dominates the way we think about consumer electronics...

Sep 2021

This Changes Everything

In 2007 Steve Jobs took the stage and introduced something that would change our lives forever -- a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communicator...aka, the iPhone.  Now we live in a world that Apple has completely reshaped. The iPhone created entirely new industries, wiped out giant competitors,...

Sep 2021

'The Apple Revolution' is here

From its beginnings as a niche personal computer company, Apple became the preeminent maker of consumer tech products, a cultural trendsetter, and the most valuable company in the world. And along the way, it changed the way we live.Hosted by Recode’s Peter Kafka. New episodes come out on Wednesdays starting September 22nd. Learn more about your ad...

Sep 2021

The Virtual Future of Restaurants

There's a secret world of restaurants that you can only find when you open up the delivery apps. This brave new world of ghost kitchens and virtual brands has allowed traditional restaurants to access new revenue streams. And these new models are using data to shape new concepts and menus. But when tech reimagines what a restaurant even is, is the soul...

Jul 2021

Who's Driving Whom?

Without delivery workers, there is no DoorDash or UberEats or Grubhub. And workers in this slice of the gig economy get access to a level of flexibility that most people in traditional employment situations can only dream of. But how much control do delivery workers really have over their schedules, their pay and the terms of their employment? These...

Jul 2021

The Race for Your Dollars

The restaurant delivery industry is worth more than $100 billion. But none of the major apps are profitable. In this episode, the key battles that have shaped the delivery wars from the point of view of founders, company executives and venture capitalists. And a key question: With billions invested, rockstar IPOs and a pandemic that exploded the growth...

Jun 2021