I met with the owner of a restaurant last Thursday and had something completely unexpected happen. The gentleman I met with has been in the restaurant business for quite some time, starting out with Subway, then rolling out his own pizza franchise concept, and now finally launching his own pizzeria. I was there to do a little research for the product side of our business. We talked for about an hour about several ways mobile technology could assist him in the operation of his restaurant, and also how it could help him be more in tune with his customers.
The discussion was very helpful to me, and I believe to him as well. However, about midway through our discussion something completely unexpected happened. This gentleman held up his iPhone that had been sitting on the table next to him throughout our discussion. As he held it up he declared “This is my PC.” His point was that he was not in the restaurant all the time, and he used his iPhone as not only the mechanism to help keep him in tune with what was going on his his restaurant, but also to help him access other information, make calls, visit web sites etc. In every way, this little “phone” had become his primary computing device.
I have made mention of this trend in other previous posts, but in this case I got anecdotal confirmation straight from the horses mouth without any prompting from me. This is not an advertisement for the iPhone, though it is a very slick device. I am sure if asked others would say the same thing about their Windows Mobile device, or their BlackBerry, or maybe even the Pre now. The point is that in fact, our phones are becoming much more than phones. They are in many instances taking the place of our PC’s in the real world.
I was at a local convenience store today and noticed a delivery man standing with the store manager, looking at a little black box, about half the size of a desktop keyboard. All of the sudden, two pieces of paper pop out of it, the manager signs it as if he was closing the tab at a restaurant.
The delivery driver works for Solaray and I stopped him and asked him about his little machine. What he was holding was a small mobile printer with an Intermec (they make some of the best rugged mobile handhelds in the world) wireless device imbedded in it. The driver was delivering sunglasses, lighters and other trinkets to stock the convenience store shelves. He just consummated the transaction and notified headquarters without a single piece of paperwork, instantly, with this little marvel.
Solaray is a small, privately held company based in Sapulpa, OK. Sapulpa is known for Frankoma Pottery, not leading edge technology development. Solaray recognized the importance of mobile technology and had a company develop the platform for them, then purchased the company! No wonder they can manage 15,000 delivery locations across the United States.
At the recent World Mobile Congress, Microsoft rather quietly announced that the company has sold more than 50MM Windows Mobile devices (the operating system) over it’s 10 year lifetime. RIM also recently announced achieving a 50MM in BlackBerry device sales milestone over the same 10 year timeframe.
In comparison, Apple has sold a total of 17MM iPhone as of January 2009. But to put that in perspective, the milestone was achieved in only two years. Projections for iPhone sales have been trending downward for the past several months, but (depending on the source) could still go as high as 30MM units in 2009.
Can it be possible that the iPhone can reach the same 50MM milestone in less than 3 years? The smartphone market is only now becoming mainstream, and overall sales have been increasing around 40% a year. This opens the field for hundreds of millions of new smartphone sales, from iPhone, WinMo, RIM, Palm, Android, etc., etc.
In fact, the third largest phone maker in the world, LG, which sells about 20x times as many handsets a day as iPhone, has just signed a deal with Microsoft to put Windows Mobile on 50 LG phones over the next 5 years. I have to believe that’s going to have a big boost for WinMo. And whatever you do, don’t forget about the new Pre – now scheduled for a May-June launch.
These sales milestones are impressive, but they will pale in comparison to what the next couple of years brings.
Steve Ballmer
After months of speculation and rumors about a new Microsoft smartphone, and months of Microsoft denying said speculation and rumors, Steve Ballmer finally made it clear that Microsoft will not release a smartphone.
Seems like a smart move as I really don’t hear a lot of people clamoring for one. Even so, many analysts and bloggers expected a 2009 release to compete with RIM/BlackBerry and Apple/iPhone.
Apple still has the device to beat and Ballmer seems to be happy to let them keep the current “mojo” in the consumer market. Ballmer’s strategy is to continue to build upon the Windows Mobile (actually now Windows Phones) platform and make it as compatible with as many devices as possible. Though not unique, this strategy is very different from Apple’s and RIM’s, whereby they both have a proprietary device and proprietary operating system. Stirring it up even more, Palm recently announced the Pre as well as a new mobile platform called webOS.
Historically, the proprietary device/OS strategy has worked for many mobile phone providers, but I believe this may be changing. From a business user’s perspective (me), the real value in “smartdevices” comes from the business applications (increasing productivity and reducing costs) that run on it. Highly restrictive access to the OS or having to develop across an endless sea of proprietary platforms makes it difficult for mobile application companies to create solutions that can run on every device.
I would personally like to see a handful of the best OS platforms be able to run across all the devices – and carrier networks. But I won’t hold my breath just yet.
