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Apple and Google won the mobile OS war, but the next war – to build big businesses on top of Android and iOS – is just beginning. Andreessen Horowitz Partner Benedict Evans untangles what the next phase of mobile means for entrepreneurs, Apple and Google's competitors, and consumers eager for the next great gadget.

a16z Podcast: Apple and Google Won the Mobile OS War, But a New War Has Already Begun

Suppose you develop a new technology that is valuable to some industry. The old approach was to sell or license your technology to the existing companies in that industry. The new approach is to build a complete, end-to-end product or service that bypasses existing companies. Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon, Balaji Srinivasan and Benedict Evans discuss the reasons behind, and advantages of, going “full stack.”

a16z Podcast: The Rise of Full Stack Startups

China has been a tough market to crack for U.S. internet companies. One of the key reasons is China has its own crop of hugely successful and highly innovative companies. Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon, Connie Chan and Benedict Evans highlight the key players in China, and what non-Chinese companies can learn from them. Where Chinese companies and money are headed next.

a16z Podcast: China and Tech

From file cabinets to typewriters, spreadsheets and word processing the tools we use for work change not only what we do, but the culture of our workplace. Steven Sinofsky, a veteran of building software tools for productivity, discusses the latest revolution in technology-enabled tools with Benedict Evans. Why today’s cloud-based tools change the role of managers, and why the perfect tool will never exist (nor would you want it to). 

a16z Podcast: Engineering a Revolution at Work

Computing is in the midst of a transformation that puts your future device purchases up for grabs. It’s a safe bet that everyone will have a phone, and as the last holdouts switch over, that will inevitably mean a smartphone. But when your PC finally gives up the ghost, are you going to buy another PC?  Perhaps a tablet? Or will another large screen device –a really big phone - be the ticket? Maybe just get all three? Benedict Evans and Steven Sinofsky discuss why laptops and tablets are competing for the same customers, and why it’s never wise to defend any form-factor to the death.

a16z Podcast: When Your PC Expires, What's Next?

What do venture capitalists actually do all day? And what is the path that leads to a career investing in startups? Hummer Winblad’s Ann Winblad, Cowboy Ventures' Aileen Lee, Aspect Ventures' Theresia Gouw, Intel Capital veteran and UPWARD founder Lisa Lambert, and Andreessen Horowitz’s Margit Wennmachers discuss VC trends, the importance of technical chops, and how to build the next generation of entrepreneurs and investors. And finally, in front of an appreciative crowd attending the UPWARD event at a16z, Ann Winblad reveals the secret to truly kicking ass.

a16z Podcast: Demystifying Venture Capital

Benedict Evans is a veteran of Apple’s big events and puts all the announcements and demos into one of three categories: 1) all the cool incremental improvements to the Apple operating systems; 2) the tent-pole features that Apple likes to build marketing campaigns around; 3) and finally, the fundamental strategic moves by Apple that serve to push the company ahead of the competition. With help from Andreessen Horowitz technical talent partner Dave Jagoda, this segment picks apart all three categories.

a16z Podcast: The Apple WWDC 2014 Deep Dive

The datacenter has long been -- there's no nice way to put this -- a bit of a snoozer. Expensive boxes running expensive software. No more, says a16z General Partner Peter Levine. Along with Chris Dixon, Levine lays out a vision for the datacenter of the future. Building on the technology established by companies like Facebook and Google, Levine and Dixon describe a software-led transformation of the datacenter, one where the mobile supply chain and fast-moving companies are reimagining everything -- from the underlying architecture to new business models. Be prepared to get in the weeds, hear Levine talk about the next opportunity, “hosted instances,” Dixon describe the “the dream within the dream,” and discover why the datacenter is about to get exciting.

a16z Podcast: Datacenter of the Future

The Google I/O keynote was epic in at least one respect, length. For three hours Google laid out the near horizon for all things Google. This included the next version of Android; a new platform for connected watches; Google for your car; yet another Google TV; and a new health platform. Andreessen Horowitz’s Benedict Evans plowed through it all, including what was noticeably absent: Google+ and Google Glass. What the future looks like as the lines between mobile apps and web pages blur, and why Google is the new Microsoft -- in the best possible way.

a16z Podcast: Google I/O -- A Three-Hour Tour (in 30 minutes)

Managing enterprise networks with thousands of users and endpoints has been hard enough. Now that large enterprise networks routinely include hundreds of thousands of nodes it’s amazingly difficult and time-consuming (we’re talking days often)  to get definitive answers to seemingly simple questions like, how many PCs do I have running? Never mind, how many PCs do I have that could be at risk of the Heartbleed virus? Tanium, the most recent company to join the a16z portfolio, offers a systems management and security tool that allows administrators to ask virtually any question about the configuration, performance, and complexion of an enterprise network and get an answer in seconds. Tanium CTO and Co-founder Orion Hindawi and a16z Board Partner Steven Sinofsky discuss the origins of Tanium; the invention of  the “linear peer-to-peer communications” architecture that turbo-charges the Tanium solution; and with Internet of Things coming online fast, the prospect of networks quickly going to millions and billions of nodes. 

a16z Podcast: When Large Scale Gets Really Massive -- Managing Today’s Enterprise Networks

One of the biggest misconceptions around network effects (which are one of the key dynamics behind many successful and highly defensible software companies) is confusing growth with engagement. So how does one tell the difference between viral growth and network effects? How does one create network effects in different businesses? (Hint: it's not by accident!) How do you know when to hang in there because you see signs of network effects or just drop it and move on to something else? And what are some examples of teasing all of the above apart?

In this episode of the a16z Podcast -- based on an event we hosted and slide deck we released all about network effects -- a16z partners Anu Hariharan and Jeff Jordan (who cover all things marketplaces, consumer, and more) share (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi) their observations, insights, and experiences. Because, why reinvent the, er, flywheel?


a16z Podcast: Getting Network Effects

Seemingly overnight, a single game -- Pokémon Go -- has taken people by storm. But it's a game that was technically years in the making, building on a legacy of creative intellectual property and technologies such as mobile, geomapping/ geolocation, computer vision, and more. And since "toys are the prelude to serious ideas" [Charles and Ray Eames] or "the next big thing will start out looking like a toy" [Chris Dixon via Clayton Christensen], we want to understand this phenomenon beyond the hype and the hope: Not only is Nintendo stock soaring, but people are sharing amazing stories of massive public play, meeting strangers, saving dogs, fighting crime, helping autistic children.

So what are some of the mechanics behind the game and its viral growth (and is this also a case of network effects)? Is this the first in a new wave of phone-based lightweight augmented reality a.k.a. "light AR"? How will things change as our environments become even more sensorified or more people embrace "camera expression" (as with Snapchat)? And finally, what does an "appified game" vs. a "gamified app" mean for monetization?

In this episode of the a16z Podcast, a16z deal team partners Anu Hariharan and Kyle Russell (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi) are joined by Product Hunt CEO and founder -- and cultural trendwatcher/maker -- Ryan Hoover to discuss all this and more. So how do we tell the difference between a fad and something that's here to stay??

photo: iphonedigital / Flickr

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a16z Podcast: We Gotta Talk Pokémon Go

The a16z Podcast discusses tech and culture trends, news, and the future -- especially as ‘software eats the world’. It features industry experts, business leaders, and other interesting thinkers and voices from around the world. This podcast is produced by Andreessen Horowitz (aka “a16z”), a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. Multiple episodes are released every week; visit a16z.com for more details and to sign up for our newsletters and other content as well!