Big tech wants to find the next big opportunity, and cash is flowing into everything from driverless cars to quantum computing. The shift reflects a fear that the lucrative fiefs of the 2010s are losing relevance, and the titans are increasingly moving onto each other’s patches. The MAAMAs’ other priority is creating software platforms that will allow them to extract rents, by drawing in users, and then relying on network effects to draw in even more. The problem is that nobody knows what it will be, but it will probably involve new physical devices that will supersede the smartphone as the dominant means of connecting people to information and services. Whoever makes such devices will therefore control access to users. The companies’ large customer bases, . . .
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