The New App Order

So Apple really has changed the smart phone game. For a long time there really was just BlackBerry and then a bunch of stuff that didn’t work very well. Windows Mobile, Palm was decent but they just couldn’t nail down their position as a great device. Then comes along Steve Jobs and the rules all changed.

Carriers are a big factor. Before Apple iPhone the rate packages were stingy to say the least. $90/month data packages for 100 MB? Whoa thats not very Internet friendly. Where BackBerry always succeeded was in dealing with bandwidth constraints. Delivering e-mail in a compressed format through the RIM Relay instantly? Bingo, BlackBerry killed it for years.

iPhone comes along and says hell I’m just going to use what the ‘Net gives me and its going to look pretty the way the ‘Net wants it to. Mr Carrier you’re going to have people lined up at your stores and you’re going to charge them $30/month for 6GB.

The carriers freaked out. But with so many data plan consumers unlocked who could argue. Bandwidth be damned and the 3G era was really ushered in.

What to do what to do with all of this extra bandwidth and airtime?

Well Steve Jobs knew the score there too. Apps. He unlocked a developer community and consumer demand for applications on smart phones that has blurred the lines between consumer and business users. Everyone is a data consumer now. BlackBerry has struggled with this reality. Android has embraced it and created in several years what Palm and Windows failed to: a great user Interface experience in short order, relatively cool inexpensive devices across multiple handset brands and carriers. Steve Jobs unlocked hidden demand. He gave users what they didn’t even know they wanted. Google elegantly jumped on that demand curve and gives away a really great product to try and efficiently clear a market space. As they always do.

Bam. New World Cellular Order.

Fast forward and now app developers are going mad. Corporations are forced to deal with devices they are not sure they can manage or control (freak out time!) and everyone tries to figure out how to engage employees and users using applications.

Theres an App For That!

If there isn’t there can be. There should be. Apple created and dominates with a really slick but closed loop distribution system. Developers benefit, carriers benefit, consumers benefit. Wow! Great Jobs! Competitors still struggle a bit but generally now companies with brands realize that the web is now longer constrained to web pages. There is a new device coming to visit, gathering consumer and buyer attentions.

And then yet again the game changes.

Bam. The iPad. Suddenly tablet, those terrible computing devices that PC manufacturers and Microsoft have butchered for so long yes see the light yet again. Apple creates yet another category of business, there is no other player. PC and device manufacturers alike scramble to redefine the iPad market as the tablet market- trying to ignore all the terrible pen based attempts for 20 years prior. And yet again Mr Jobs gives consumers alike something they did not realize they wanted. He saves his competitors who once again have something to understand and copy and differentiate against. Bravo Mr Jobs. Bravo.

Everyone scrambles. Net book and laptop economies and demand crumble. Long live the new always on- no really- its always on- screen computing device that you control with magic.

Actually, the concept of computing doesn’t even enter the equation.

Now you as a brand owner or app idea owner or person trying to stay engaged with someone you want to sell something to– have yet another opportunity to address a sizable user group who have a better way to engage you. iPad apps!

New screens, new eye balls, new rate plans for Carriers. Rejoice. The world is your oyster.

But now what?

What to build, what to build?

Well it all begins with strategy and you need to think like Steve Jobs. Forward, elegant, contrarian. You need to stop thinking about your business as you know it. We need new rules or maybe no rules – throw those away, do the opposite… to make apps that people want, that we can derive benefit from as businesses and entrepreneurs.

There is a plan. You just need to build it. So how do you get there? What apps should your business be offering consumers? If you have a crazy idea for a killer app how do you go about getting something meaningful built, distributed and monetized?

We shall deal with these topics in further posts on:

Strategy.

Design

Development

Distribution.

For now I’m going to go boot up my Slingbox App on my iPad and watch a little Boardwalk Empire.