Star Trek had two devices – a communicator and tricorder – that lead me to believe that Gene Roddenberry saw our future with smartphones and scanners (Machine to Machine sensors) before we knew we wanted them. He also saw the blue ocean of making the devices universal in their ability. The tricorder could gather data in a variety of way and the communicator was connected to the “computer” to provide network services.

 

We will be looking at the opportunities at 4GWE and M2M Evolution in Miami and January, but it’s pretty amazing how the show foretold our future. Now can we deliver on it?

 

I once got called in to do some consulting for a Chinese importer of devices.

 

I sat there and looked at the presentation and asked myself the question: How would I want this device to be identified?

 

Is the term “smartphone” already saturated? Its software (“we can run OS, just tell us what you want”) was not very compelling on its own. Apple is such a major mover that it forces everything else to compete on its own turf.

 

This device had a home networking component. Should they try to emphasize the connected home angle? (It even acted as an electronic picture frame when it was not being used). Pretty Clever.

 

The device had been used in China for mobile TV services. Should a pocket TV strategy be offered to some friends who have that shared vision?

 

It could support memory sticks and dongles, could it be sold as a mobile social network device, (the camera would need some added pixel density).

 

I came away wondering how to move the market.

 

In the big players, this is also a big bone of contention. Friends are close to rolling out a wireless deal from their cable company that will bring on a full-fledged price war. That will definitely impact the market, as we can tell by the amount of prepaid and pay as you go wireless services in the market.

 

Price wars are a slippery slope and I would like to think that devices are going to bring us to some new markets. As W. Chan Kim and Rene Mauborgne indicated in the book Blue Ocean Strategies, killing each other in the “Red Ocean” of competition does not breed success. The concept behind Blue Ocean strategies is to identify new markets and to be the first move and leader in these markets.

 

Whenever I advise clients, my goal is to look for their way to change the market and find their blue ocean.

 

While lots of people think the IPhone is the smartphone of record, to me the cyclometer is the blue ocean they hit. They brought a new level to gaming apps on the cell phone that combined with the web was a game changer.

 

However, I still contend that its phone function is one of its weakest points.

 

GoogleVoice has also moved into a blue ocean, not from the old features of call connection, but the voice recognition and directory service now providing a front end to call connection.

 

Watching my wife speak into her iPhone to use GoogleVoice like Captain Kirk, I think maybe we are on the right track. “Beam me up Scotty, and while we are it find me sushi nearby.”