Warning: The Emperor is About to Upgrade His Clothes

When Verizon and Verizon Wireless get through the $130B Vodafone buyout, the company will focus its attention on M2M.

Until now, the M2M story has been kind of a hit-or-miss experience. They still have a legacy of OnStar customers, but OnStar is now with AT&T. They have a customer base in the CDMA space, but on the wireless side it’s hard to identify an M2M app that requires 40MB, HD remote reporting and some Video Surveillance.

To date, the focus of M2M has been on the wireline side with a home automation and security solution.   We could call this Son of FiOS, or MiOS perhaps. MiOS is not exactly an easy sale in a “red ocean” market, one with ADT being the second largest M2M implementation next to OnStar. So in effect, Verizon finds itself losing the No. 1 M2M customer and competing with the No. 2 customer. 

We could say that Emperor has been caught up in some fashion changes.

As a wireline product, FiOS had gone through an interesting evolution. If they had used the $20+ billion at the time, they could have perhaps bought back the 45 percent from Vodafone a decade ago. But at the time Comcast was friendly with AT&T and the wireline cash cow was the focus of Wall Street, not the wireless side.

However on a positive note, the focus on Fiber to the home gave birth to GPON and can be considered all profit for the next 20 years of customer acquisition with little need for anything more than central office migrations to fiber. 

If the emperor wanted to, he could just continue working the home M2M strategy and not be any more aggressive. (Perhaps a little out of style, but still well-groomed).

However, it’s more likely that the wireless side of M2M will get way more aggressive shortly.

Given that wireline is focused on the home, it is likely that Verizon Wireless focuses on something more mobile. Health, Municipal, and Transportation are the most likely, but I have my doubts that we will see quick results in the first two categories.

Another logical spot in the consumer space is with a watch or eBook. An aggressive win that includes pricing models that are a win/win for the vendor/content provider would make the emperor look snappy.

One of the last speeches Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam made mentioned M2M more than any other initiative, perhaps foreshadowing that the wardrobe is about to get an upgrade.

Don’t be surprised if VZW starts making you stand up and take notice. For those of us who have been watching them for a while, it will feel like they won “Project Runway.”