Apple's iPhone Changes The Stakes, Not The Game

Thread: Apple's iPhone Changes The Stakes, Not The Game

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Apple's iPhone Changes The Stakes, Not The Game
	2007-01-24 13:44:07
Came across this article, at Forrester, which has interesting point -- Apple's iPhone Changes The Stakes, Not The Game Business View Quick Take, by Charles S. Golvin "At this week's Macworld, Apple introduced its long-awaited entry into the mobile phone business: the iPhone. The device unites a full-screen video iPod, a phone, and Internet applications in a package with a simple, touchscreen user interface. The iPhone is a more capable video iPod and provides a huge leap forward in phone usability, though its function as an Internet device is hampered by the absence of a high-speed cellular connection. The iPhone will force competing device makers like Motorola to play catch-up and operators to search for a response, but the iPhone will not substantially alter the fundamental structure and challenges of the mobile industry." And here's the Billion dollar question -- What is "The Game"? Can "design" change the game for cellular phones? What is needed for iPhone to change the game? What is missing? Anyone? ------------ IA Summit 2007: Enriching IA Rich Information, Rich Interaction, Rich Relationships March 22-26, 2007, Las Vegas, NV www.iasummit.org ----- When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible. *Plain text, please; NO Attachments Searchable Archive at http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/ ________________________________________ Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-lasis.org Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l
Re: Apple's iPhone Changes The Stakes, Not The Game
	2007-01-24 14:57:30
On Jan 24, 2007, at 11:44 AM, prady wrote: > Came across this article, at Forrester, which has interesting point -- > > > The iPhone will force competing device > makers like Motorola to play catch-up and operators to search for a > response, but the iPhone will not substantially alter the fundamental > structure and challenges of the mobile industry." > > And here's the Billion dollar question -- > What is "The Game"? Can "design" change the game for cellular phones? > What is needed for iPhone to change the game? What is missing? > > Anyone? Always happy to spout off about Apple. Please note that unlike the Forrester article -- and apparently everybody else -- I don't think this is going to play out as Apple vs. other cell phone _manufacturers_. This is going to turn out to be Apple vs. the cellular telephony _carriers_. Just as the key to the iPod puzzle is iTunes, the key to the iPhone's success will be ease of use as a service. The only open question is whether the people at Cingular ('scuse me -- AT&T) are smart enough to follow Steve's lead on this. There's a simple way to handle this. For every article you've ever read about why Apple is beating the pants off of their competition with the iPod, 'even though the iPod costs too much and doesn't have Features X through ZZ', substitute 'iPhone' for 'iPod'. Then substitute the names of Apple's competition in the phone arena for the names of their competition in MP3 players. Alternatively, watch this YouTube video of Steve Jobs talking about Microsoft, and whenever Steve says the word 'Microsoft', mentally substitute the name of *your* current cell phone carrier, even if you are a Cingular subscriber. - Will Will Parker wparkerChannelingDesign.com "The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who already have it." - William Tozier ------------ IA Summit 2007: Enriching IA Rich Information, Rich Interaction, Rich Relationships March 22-26, 2007, Las Vegas, NV www.iasummit.org ----- When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible. *Plain text, please; NO Attachments Searchable Archive at http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/ ________________________________________ Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-lasis.org Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l
Re: Apple's iPhone Changes The Stakes, Not The Game
	2007-01-24 15:22:44
prady: > "its function as an Internet device is hampered by the absence of a high-speed > cellular connection" They should enlarge a photo of this sentence and put it up at Harvard Biz School for an illustration of cluelessness: Trees. Forest. > What is "The Game"? The game is the government sanctioned spectrum allocation which is the source of carrier revenue. Based on the perception of scarcity, an ever smaller number of companies own the pipes/tubes/gateways. Thus they can dictate pricing, design, technology and ultimately usage patterns, in a way to maximize their revenue. For example, on a two-year data/phone contract worth $3,000-$4,000, the $200 subsidy the carrier gives to the device manufacturer is just customer acquisition cost they are happy to pay. The manufacturers have no control over the operating system their devices run on or the feature set carriers can dictate, not to say anything about back-end server/service features. Not unlike the disjointed Microsoft-Wintel arrangement, this is not fertile ground for innovation. For the very first time in any significant way, an outsider to the game comes into the market not only with new hardware but by far the most sophisticated underlying operating system -- all integrated. And convinces the biggest carrier in this nation to begin to change its services. That's huge. To the extent the iPhone is successful, it ushers in an "appliance" model into a market now entirely driven by "the assembly of disjointed components" model. If it succeeds, the doors of hw/sw/service innovations will be kicked wide open. > Can "design" change the game for cellular phones? Design is the *only* thing that can change it. > What is needed for iPhone to change the game? The FUD to subside. > What is missing? This is just the beginning of a rich product pipeline at Apple. One has to be blind to not see how unbelievably well Apple handled the birth and maturity of the iPod line, both in design and business. Nobody else even comes close to having that experience. What's really interesting in reading thousands of articles and commentary on the iPhone is the impatience and frustration of people who say, this is the perfect product I've been waiting for, I only wish it had this [or the other feature]. When a product reaches that level of "I've been waiting for this for so long why can't it be perfect" status and maps so well with pent-up desire, it changes the game. Ziya Nullius in Verba ------------ IA Summit 2007: Enriching IA Rich Information, Rich Interaction, Rich Relationships March 22-26, 2007, Las Vegas, NV www.iasummit.org ----- When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible. *Plain text, please; NO Attachments Searchable Archive at http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/ ________________________________________ Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-lasis.org Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l