It was a surprise and an honor to be asked by my friend Dan Benjamin to fill in for him on this week's episode of The Critical Path. I've been an avid follower of Horace Dediu's Asymco.com for some time. In the realm of Apple prognostication, many often engage in the sort of praise-heaping that inspires calls of fanboyism, but Horace is always utterly pragmatic in his analysis.

We discuss the Apple v. Samsung verdict, the relative success of the Kindle Fire, and jump from the Amazon connected ecosystem into a contemplation on the future of media distribution. We also question whether Apple can yet be considered an 800-pound gorilla in that world.