Best thing I've read on satellite internet competition to date. Starlink's approach mirrors Tesla's approach to self-driving (which shows up in Elon's criticism of Waymo's expensive lidar): relatively cheap unit costs matter.
"Elon thinks we can do the job with cheaper and simpler satellites, sooner," a source told Reuters at the time of Badyal's dismissal. Earlier in 2018, SpaceX launched a pair of prototype cube-shaped Internet satellites for demonstrations in orbit. Then, less than a year after firing Badyal, Musk's company launched the first full stack of Starlink satellites, debuting the now-standard flat-panel design.
Ultimately, SpaceX's simplified Starlink deployment architecture has fewer parts and eliminates the need for a carrier structure. This allows SpaceX to devote a higher share of the rocket's mass and volume capacity to the Starlink satellites themselves, replacing dead weight with revenue-earning capability. The dispenser architecture used by Amazon is a more conventional design and gives satellite engineers more flexibility in designing their spacecraft. It also allows satellites to spread out faster in orbit.