Will The Wireless Industry Do The Right Thing?
The third and perhaps most viable option lies in facing the current market dynamics head-on, delivering improved customer value propositions in the form of substantive features and benefits. As more users draw the line and refuse to pay for services that don’t add significant value, carriers are being forced to acknowledge the necessity of delivering new applications based on current-generation technologies. Fortunately, numerous wireless application developers are creating precisely the types of mobile applications that wireless users crave. The difficulty lies in the fact that most carriers regard these developers as a necessary evil (at best) and begrudgingly consent to working with them.
Most carriers will grant a promising application a token nod such as a position on their WAP deck, but it is virtually unheard of for a carrier to commit resources to developing, supporting or promoting a new application. The situation is further complicated by the involvement of content providers, who add the meat to the bones provided by the carriers and application developers. Each of the three participants needs the involvement and resources of the others, but historically they have failed to come together in a systemic way to create compelling customer value propositions. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, because they refuse to hang together, they are likely to all hang separately.
Where does the ultimate wireless solution lie? It is clear that it is not likely to be found in expensive new technologies that fly in the face of the market’s growing demands for wireless economy. Nor does it lie in fragmented, non-systemic strategies that place short-term expediencies above creating viable long-term solutions. Instead, users seem most likely to respond to well-conceived, well-executed wireless offerings that deliver exceptional value at little or no additional cost. Bringing these types of applications to market will require a much higher level of cooperative effort among carriers, developers and content providers than has been demonstrated to date. Instead of approaching each other as obstacles, these companies would do well to leverage each other’s strengths as strategic partners, taking advantage of shared resources and economies of scale to eliminate many of the costs that are duplicated in individual efforts. Each of these players can achieve their ultimate objectives by taking a long-term, systemic view of wireless opportunities, or they can continue to work at cross purposes with each other and risk further alienating the end user with poorly formed, low-value offerings.
The economic models that will carry wireless into the future are still taking shape and it is clear that much has to be accomplished with relatively few resources. As long as wireless users continue to tighten their grip on the purse strings, it makes little sense for the industry to engage in any strategies that don’t directly contribute to producing increased value at lower prices. Because neither carriers, developers nor content providers are in a position to bring the needed wireless offerings to market independently of each other, it stands to reason that finding effective ways to work jointly to produce the needed products and services should be a high priority. Whether or not they choose to do so will be a clear indication of both their character and their long-term prospects.
Jay Deragon is chairman of XSVoice Inc., which produces technology that enables live and on-demand audio streaming to wireless devices.