It's Monday, April 06, 2020. Hey, good morning!  There is so much money behind Quibi. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a mobile video service/network hot on the heels of many similar services that have failed. With Hollywood clout and again, so much darn money, Quibi launches today -- for $5 per month with ads! -- with a selection of shows and content with short runtimes and baffling sales pitches. Will it sideline Netflix, Hulu, podcasts, games, Instagram and absolutely everything else you use to kill time on your phone? I’m not sure it will. Still, there’s a 90-day free trial if you want to give it the benefit of the doubt. -- Mat It's more popular than Firefox after just a few months.
 Microsoft’s new Chromium-based browser is picking up users. According to the latest figures from NetMarketShare, Edge just inches ahead of Firefox, with 7.6 percent versus 7.2 percent. Yes, it’s Window’s default browser, but it’s that Chromium base that makes it more compatible, faster and, well, less janky compared to older versions of Edge. | | Spotify is still out front.
Counterpoint Research says paid music subscriptions jumped 32 percent to reach 358 million users in 2019. It points to a mix of exclusives, phone service bundles, regional price cuts and extended trial periods for the leap in growth. Spotify, with a 35 percent cut is out in front, while Apple Music claims 19 percent and Amazon has jumped up to 15 percent. After that, it’s all the others, like YouTube Music, Tencent, Yandex Music and so on.
| | Quit trying to make Quibi happen
 Devindra Hardawar has been watching those Quibi snippets, and he can’t fathom why anyone would be willing to stump up five bucks a month for it. He also didn't find much value flipping between portrait and vertical modes. Quibi's Turnstyle tech moves between those orientations without stopping the show, but without much commuting in our near future, where this would be useful on a crowded train, it’s a miss. You also can’t ‘cast’ the videos to TVs through AirPlay or Chromecast, which means you’ll have to share your actual phone if you do eventually find something cool. | | Sponsored Content by Stack Commerce | |
