Viewpoint: stop thinking about technology

"I find myself increasingly intrigued by the marketing aspirations of technology vendors, most of which insist on perpetuating the myth that their technology is, of itself, important. 

 

Apple, of course, is the current master of the art form, though to be fair to the company it does demonstrate the beginnings of understanding that the technology is only a means to an end, and that the end is actually in the services provided, not the technology.

 

But an apposite product launch from the combination of Samsung and Vodafone demonstrates that the point of `why’ the product should exist still lags well behind the excitement we are all supposed to feel at its very existence.

 

The product in question is a Samsung tablet device, called the Galaxy Tab, which uses Google’s Android operating system and is being marketed in the UK by Vodafone. The PR blurb talks about the specification and such capabilities as `full high definition video playback’. Well, on a seven inch screen `HD’ is, I would suggest, an arguable concept.

 

But the one thing that is not mentioned is what it might be useful for or, more to the point, what services are available that might make buying or specifying the device an action of some value beyond being able to say that you have got one.

 

Apple, of course, understands that owning such a device does not give users access to its real crown jewels – the services that come in the form of the Apps it promotes, markets and sells. To get them you must buy an Apple iSomethingorother.

 

The corollary of this, of course, is that Apple does not yet understand the simple economic argument that `owning’ 100% of a limited market is nearly always not a patch on owning 10% or 20% of a simply humungous market, which is what there would be if every and any smart(ish) phone could interface with iTunes and, in particular, the Apps.

 

And that is a small subset of the issue. The smartphone market is set to be one of the key components of cloud architectures, the essential end point of a complex and comprehensive information dissemination and interaction management infrastructure. But by concentrating on the capabilities of the device rather than the services that will both make it valuable and be the real revenue generator, the vendors are doing their customers a disservice. 

 

It is like selling a Ferrari but forgetting to organise `roads’.

 

Part of that problem, of course, is that the service providers now need to realise that they are about to become the drivers of the technology – the reason it exists at all. It is the services, and the value they deliver, which users will be seeking and specifying. So now is the time for service providers to start promoting services that will exploit all smartphones. They need to push the capability of cloud to supply delivery platforms that are abstracted from technology and therefore device independent. It is there that the real value of the cloud will be found – not in technology.

 

As a silly analogy to make the point, men will happily discuss the relative merits of 240V UK electricty supply, versus 110V US. Women will ask `will my hair dryer work there?’ Which, in the end, has the more value and relevance to the end user?

 

They also need to push the value that their services can offer, both to business and consumer end users, so that they are in a position to ride the coming smartphone wave. 

 

And the one important fact about the Galaxy Tab announcement is, of course, that it is just one more piece of evidence that the smartphone wave is happening in the hear and now."

 

Martin Banks is infrastructure editor for PublicTechnology's sister site BusinessCloud9.com.