A lot has happened since my last post. Apple launched IOS 5 & iCloud, Skype was bought by Microsoft, Facebook is moving into a new campus once owned by Sun, in June we saw some major cyber attacks, Microsoft acquired Nokia’s mobile business, Linkedin went public, Apple bought HP’s campus in Cupertino and I moved to the Bay area. Agreed the last one is not as major as others, but it has an impact on my learning’s as I share them over the next few posts.
I often think how real is the Consumerization theory? It is a passing phenomenon, which would lose its momentum as we move on? Would business adopt it? Would it remain a B2C technology, would it impact B2B transactions? This post is my attempt to think through this.
Over the last two months I have seen extreme examples of consumerization in use. Part of my departure process from India involved me going to a family event in my village. Technology & consumerization is the last thing I could relate to the village where continued electricity supply was a challenge. During the event I saw my cousin use his smart phone to update this Facebook status on 3G! Now this guy is a successful businessman, who I didn’t think knew how to use a computer and I know had a hard time getting through his graduate studies.
The other extreme was my experience in moving to the Bay area, setting up my home and office in Cupertino, California. Yes Cupertino, the home of Apple. Not many believe me that that was not the reason for me to choose Cupertino. Living in the US has its own set of learning’s, one among them is as my friend says “Your home may not have water, but it needs to have internet”. At home I have a basic internet service (22Mpbs download speed, yes that’s basic). There is not a single aspect of our life which is not powered by an Internet service or for that matter a smartphone application, which is on the cloud. Some examples:
TV (Netflix)
Phone (Vonage)
Maps / GPS (Mapquest, Google Maps)
Banking (mobile app, e.g. I can simply take a photo of a cheque for it to be deposited)
Tennis (joining weekly practice sessions, court bookings and USTA league)
Library (online booking, RFID check-in and check-out)
Books (ebooks)
Travel (online booking and smart phone boarding passes)
Music (Pandora)
Home remote (yes that’s an app on my ipad to control multiple devices)
News (We don’t get any “newspaper”)
Skype (video calls)
Google Places to find stores and restaurants
Movie ticket bookings
Online shopping (Craiglist, Walmart etc.)
School updates
Insurance
Medical services
Etc.
We add to the list almost every day AND each one of the above has an Apple App! So having an Apple App is like a basic must have channel for business to reach its customers. I must add that the above are basic services; our family is not the most technically advanced, yet.
So each of these “consumers” who become “users” inside the enterprise are being exposed to such services and channels, they seem to expect the same type of services from the enterprise. Enterprises are now creating “internal applications” using the consumerization channel and are distributing them to users and customers.
This seems to be an irreversible phenomenon, the adaptation across users and businesses is just growing and in areas which are beyond imagination. I recently read about a company in the Bay area which has created technology to open the car using an iPhone app. You don’t need to carry anything now, cash, cards, keys, contacts, books, newspapers, addresses, GPS, music player, remote control etc. All you need is an iPhone and the internet.
Consumerization is real, it’s here to stay and we are going to find ways to use it, beyond what we can imagine now. It’s also not possible to de-couple the CSM (Cloud, Social and Mobile) elements of Consumerization. One is going to drive the others and the cycle will continue. So will the need to build security strategies as these services are rolled out, which would help me pay the bills for services I am using!
