I’m a big fan of the Stratechery newsletter and eagerly read every article that comes out. This past week a post came out that gave a wonderful description of the state of tech in 2018:

This, then, is the state of technology in 2018: the enterprise market is thriving, and the consumer market is stagnant, dominated by the “innovations” that a few large behemoths deign to develop for consumers (probably by ripping off a smaller company). Meanwhile a backlash is brewing on both sides of the political spectrum, but with no immediately viable outlet through competition or antitrust action, the politics surrounding technology simply becomes ever more rancid.

This felt like such a potent and accurate summary of 2018 that I wanted to repot it here. It does feel as if there’s no room for consumer apps anymore and yet we’re seeing a ton of competition in the enterprise. This is the opposite of the world 15 years ago when the enterprise world felt static and the consumer world was alive. I like to think that the tech world goes in cycles and in another 15 years (hopefully sooner) we’ll be in a renaissance of consumer tech.