In today’s enterprise mobility is used strategically in many ways. Probably the coolest application (for me anyway) is the use of technology to disrupt a market. Let me give you a couple examples… Back in 2009 when Motorola Mobility announced the first Droid on Verizon’s network they rocked Garmin’s world. The Droid announcement included FREE turn by turn navigation, a corner of the market that Garmin had a stranglehold on up until that turning point. The result was a precipitous stock price for Garmin that it has yet to recover from. No longer did you have to buy a specific device to mount in your vehicle to be told where to go by a synthetic voice, now the same smartphone I use for my email and playing games will do that. Sure smartphones put a dent in the digital camera market but nothing as crazy as crushing Garmin in a single press release.
Another great example of using mobility to disrupt a market came from Zipcar. Focused on renting cars in large cities Zipcar didn’t use a central parking garage where all their vehicles were stored and consumers visited in order to rent one. Instead they parked their cars all around the urban center and created a mobile app that allowed users to find a car, rent and pay for the car from their smartphone, and even unlock the car in order to drive off. The disruption to the car rental market was so big it resulted in Zipcar getting snatched up by Avis!
Now SW Airlines is using BYOD to compete against Jet Blue’s claim to fame – a TV in every seat. By providing the TV feed on the airplane and allowing users to sign on using their own smartphone, tablet, or PC they are providing the same TV at every seat feature and doing at a much reduced cost. If you haven’t seen the commercials yet you will soon. The SW Airlines BYOD TV is making a big splash and probably causing a lot of heart burn at Jet Blue.
Do you have a great story on how mobility shook up a market dynamic? I’d love to hear about it!!!!