I was wondering how long it would take for News Corp’s journalists to catch up with the Great Google Gamble.
As I said last week this is a new experience for Google because they have never had any “real” customers before… just traffic. What you need to succeed in the Mobile space is great Customer Relationship Management. Get that right and the rest is relatively easy.
Plus, if Google fails to sell large numbers of the Nexus One then what does it say about customer loyalty to the Google Brand compared to the Apple “Lovemark”. Even more interestingly what does it say about Google, and by extension the Internet, as a direct market and advertising platform?
Anyway one week on and Fox Business has a Prediction: Google’s Gonna Kill the Nexus One. Why? Retailing hardware isn’t what business Google is in and Google’s damaging its brand name.
Even GigaOm is following the trend with a piece today called Should Google Kill the Nexus One?
It may be unfair to predict doom for a handset that came to market just two weeks ago, but it’s becoming clear that taking on the role of mobile retailer was a mistake for Google. It’s too early to predict that Google will kill the Nexus One, but it’s not too early to wonder whether it should.
Anyway so much for last week’s news. Let’s move on to more current topics. Of more interest to me today is the news from Business Insider that Microsoft Readies Secret iPhone Killer and from RIS that Motorola is Launching a Mobile Loyalty Solution & Service To Digitize Store Card Plan.
The New Plastic – Motorola Style
Let’s begin by taking a quick look at the Motorola announcement.
As retailers ramp up efforts to digitize store branded cards and foster customer relationships via new touch points, Motorola is seizing the opportunity to influence customers in-store with the launch its new Mobile Loyalty Solution.
The solution is designed to approach loyalty with a ”closed-loop” system that allows retailers to maintain a rich database of shopper product interests, purchase habits and preferences.
As I’ve said before your “New Plastic” strategy could take shape in one of three ways.
- You could just build lots of Mobile Apps and distribute them to all your members (Thereby adding to the costs of managing the program)
- You could turn your Loyalty Program Cost Center into a Profit Center by offering your customers the opportunity to sign up to your branded mobile phone network, or
- You could deliver to your customer the ultimate retail platform.
The question is how do you want to plug into your customer’s Mobile Life?
Where is Micosoft’s iClone?
Now turning our attention to Microsoft we find that, as Wired has pointed out in Congratulations, Google. You’ve spent untold millions of dollars to produce another iPhone — two years late, Google’s mobile strategy was to do what Microsoft did to Personal Computing back in the early 1990’s. Commoditize the hardware and force all the business value into their software and apps platform.
The question always was why hasn’t Microsoft pursued the same strategy? After all they invented it.
As I pointed out in What’s on Microsoft’s Radar? Microsoft’s whole MobCon strategy needs to be revamped. The question is can they do it with an iClone strategy? The short answer is maybe. The long answer is it will be difficult. The next question is should they try?
Microsoft are the past masters at securing market leadership by employing the Me2 strategy. Think Windows, Think Word, Think Excel Think Xbox, Think… Microsoft entered the market late with all of these flagship products and still went on to dominate.
However the iPod clone (the Zune) proves that Microsoft doesn’t always get the Me2 right. Plus there is the Windows Vista experience and the ongoing security problems with Windows and IE. So it is fair to say customers may have concerns over Microsoft’s ability to deliver a high quality mobile experience.
Last week GigaOm took a quick look at how Microsoft can get back in the mobile game suggesting they try making Windows Mobile free to manufacturers and build a top-notch app store designed for business users.
The problem with that is it would be a case of too little too late. The real question is what, if anything, has Microsoft learnt from Nokia and Google’s efforts to re-revolutionise the Mobile Phone Industry over the past 2 – 3 years? At the moment, at least in the US, there appears to be only one player in the game. After all the market place is buzzing in expectation of what new products Apple will be bringing to market later this month. (See Apple rumor roundup: future of media edition).
The reality is, for Microsoft to win this game, they may have to change the game plan, abandon the Me2 and go looking for the next generation of mobile convergence technologies. So the real question is can Microsoft re-innovate, re-invigorate and re-invent itself in time to catch the next wave of the MobCon?
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