It is one of those things that begins with a whisper and then continues to grow louder into the wildest of crashing waterfalls. Sometimes it confronts us in a very direct way and other times it sneaks up on us spreading like a virus throughout society. It penetrates our lives and influences others around us. The beneficiaries are our day-to-day modern society that adopts them and adores them. The victors are the people and the companies who make them. In fact we can quantify the victors with the monetary term of billions of dollars. Those who try to stand in the way of these cultural phenomena’s are simply pushed aside and deemed not relevant. We deem these to be the companies we refer to as competition. In the industry this is a big deal and though sometimes accidental many times it is brilliance, such as Steve Jobs. In the end it is about creating emotional connections and not negative emotions but positive ones. Looking through history there have been some big moments (and winners).
The first I remember of this type of phenomena was the build up to the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 95. It was funny at the time as the product was continually being delayed. When the name was announced people even began to wonder if it would even ship in 1995. But at the time Microsoft was the darling of the industry. Even when it seemed destined to fail in the end it always seemed to succeed. Windows 95 would turn out to be the greatest testament to the ability of the company to succeed. When the product finally shipped it was to mass hysteria never seen in the industry. People lined up at midnight waiting for doors to open to a new world of wonder. It brought the idea of technology into everyone’s home. It was exciting and a fulfillment of a vision that Paul Allen and Bill gates had as young boys. It was really the dawn of the new age of technology and every significant technology launch has been compared to the launch of Windows 95. The main competition, Apple, could only sit, watch and wonder, “it should have been us”.
The second phenomena that occurred I did not become familiar with until, then CEO of Novel,l Eric Schmidt left his post and joined a small company known as Google. Google was a search engine provider and certainly not the first, but it would turn out to be by far and away the most successful. It was not long before it seemed everyone was searching the web with Google, as it was far superior to what was on the market. Google’s impact beyond the technology was it changed the market dynamics and how companies made money. They were in many was also the first to demonstrate you can not only make money on the web, you can make tons of money on the web. The growth of Google was so accelerated it was almost hard to comprehend. While they are making all this money they also became part of our cultural linguistics as Google became a verb. By the time Microsoft finally launched a technological viable competitor in Bing, they were no longer visible in Google’s rear view mirror
When the iPhone stated to be discussed the whispers started early and grew loud and clear. I had a friend working at AT&T at the time and he said everything at the corporate office was driving towards the launch of the Apple iPhone. When the iPhone launched in 2007 it would turn out to be a huge success on many fronts, from the device to the apps, creating a new market, a new ecosystem. As time went by what was amazing to watch was the extremely personal relationship that would develop between people and their technology. People really get addicted to these phones and it more or less becomes an extension of the individual. One thing Apple was always great at was creating a product that fostered loyalty. The iPhone would do this in spades. So much changed with the iPhone in how we as a society interact with one another, the iPhone was a truly powerful technical and social breakthrough.
It is difficult for companies to compete against these type of movements in a direct head on manner. Microsoft has more or less tried this with Bing against Google and not seen very good results. The biggest challenge is not the market share but the cultural awareness they are up against. It is not even a technology gap so much as the successful technologies of today are internalized by users, who purchase and use certain technologies without much thought. It is as if they are predisposed to certain choices, they are conditioned . It is hard and I have yet to see a marketing plan that says with our latest release we need to brainwash society and condition them to use our stuff. I would be most entertained if someone would try doing this as I think it would be an eventful exercise. As we have learned over and over again just because you have the better technology does not mean that you win. Part of the challenge when competing with these social titans is that it is not good enough to create a better technology because even if you do, you have to ask, “Now what?”. You need not only a better product but a better vision. Vision should proceed the product, not follow it.
I am waiting for the next phenomena and it may be just around the corner. We are nearing the age of the robot and I am warily awaiting the device that becomes a consumer phenomena. It may also be something not so dramatic. It could be a new social networking innovation. Perhaps Google Glass is bigger than we think or know? All we know is software is becoming pervasive in nearly everything we touch. As Bill Gates said, “It is where the magic happens”. Like all things in tech it is not predicting the future, but timing it. For any company the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is to become a necessary fabric of society. To be wanted. A basic, necessary and powerful human emotion.
Good Night and Good Luck
Hans Henrik Hoffmann May 29, 2013
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