Apple at 50, Amazon's Robot Bet, and How Allbirds Burned $4B

Apple just turned 50. Amazon quietly acquired two robotics companies. And Allbirds — once valued at $4B— sold for $39M. Rick Watson and Nick Kaplan work through what these three stories have in common: the relentless pressure to find a next act before the first one runs out.The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara — automated tax compliance built for Shopify merchants, from calculation to returns. For more details: https://avalara.watsonweekly.com/Topics this week: whether Tim Cook's Apple needs a visionary or just needs to win in AI, what Amazon's Rivr and Fauna acquisitions tell you about where last-mile delivery is actually going, and why Allbirds is a cautionary tale that applies to almost every DTC brand built on a single product. Plus: ambient AI through AirPods, the Rounders theory of the AI market, and why Rick switched from ChatGPT to Claude.Subscribe for weekly retail and commerce analysis: watsonweekly.com