2026.42: Home At Last

(X: @twostraws)

Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery!

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On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week.

What is Apple Doing? On last week’s Dithering, John and I bemoaned Apple’s exit from home appliances in the 2010s; now the company is back and John doesn’t see the point. I think a big problem was Apple’s marketing video; after I explained what Apple was trying to accomplish on Sharp Tech Andrew was almost persuaded to go all in on HomeView. — Ben Thompson

SpaceX Continues Eating and Expands Its Appetite. Elon Musk and SpaceX have continued their spectrum buying spree, and in Tuesday’s update Ben broke down the implications of both the latest deal, as well as recent deals that mobile carriers (and airlines) have done to avoid reliance on SpaceX. This market’s dynamics are fascinating to me, and for SpaceX, what once looked like a play to become the de-facto provider of emergency satellite coverage among mobile providers now looks like a company that’s coming for primary cellular coverage. Come to read about the methods that could make that path viable, and stay to appreciate challenges that make it a quintessential Musk strategy. — Andrew Sharp

Titles, Takes, and the Washington Wizards. The NBA season begins next Tuesday, and if you want to have a good time preparing this weekend, we’ve got you covered. First, Greatest of All Talk makes the case for eight different potential title winners (although I must warn you that our Knicks repeat case was extremely unconvincing) and runs down our favorite highlights from the preseason. Then, for Friday’s Sharp Text, I played the most dangerous game of all and expressed confidence the Washington Wizards (for the first time in a full decade) while also offering 18 more takes and predictions for the rest of the league. — AS

Stratechery Articles and Updates

SpaceX Buys More Spectrum, Musk and Market Structure, Distributed Cellular — SpaceX’s mobile strategy is becoming clearly with its latest spectrum purchase, and it might work.

Apple HomeView, The New Apple TV, The App Story — The Apple Homeview is official, and the question is how big is the addressable market for expensive devices based on subpar AI.

A Conversation With Ari Emanuel About Entertainment and AI — A conversation with Hollywood super-agent Ari Emanuel about his memoir, the impact of AI on Hollywood, and the power of a phone call.

Sharp Text by Andrew Sharp

A Wizards Public Service Announcement and 18 More NBA Takes — Optimism in D.C. for the first time in a decade, plus predictions, a giant wild card, and Bet Your Mortgage Locks.

Dithering with Ben Thompson and Daring Fireball’s John Gruber

Meanness and Claude

HomeView

Asianometry with Jon Yu

ASML’s New Multibeam Inspection Tool is Familiar

IGBTs Took Silicon Power to the Next Level

Sharp China with Andrew Sharp and Sinocism’s Bill Bishop

Brussels and Beijing Make a Deal; Weak Holiday Spending Data; Xi’s Reported Rest Breaks; Peak Dove?

Greatest of All Talk

Tell Me Why They Will, Preseason Highlight Digest, Sizing Up a Loaded Northwest Division

Sharp Tech with Andrew Sharp and Ben Thompson

Apple Enters the Uncanny Valley, The SpaceX Play for Cellular, Q&A on The Ringer, Smartphones, AI Parenting

This week’s Stratechery video is on Apple and a Hacker’s Future.