I always think that one of the tricks in being successful is to be able to join the dots between seemingly disparate phenomena to create a new truly compelling offering. I read today about the new
Vodafone 360 offering which links up the hugely sexy topics of AppStores, Social Networking & Smart Phones. Its not clear where Vodafone plan to take this new beast, but it seems clear that if you can integrate our insatiable appetite for social networking, along with our growing appetite for personal and business apps then you have a winner. Add to this the rapid growth in availability of smart phones that have large screen real-estate, and it could kick off the next phase of the love affair between consumers and their mobile phones. The first news on this talks about aggregating all your social networking info through one mobile application, but I'm envisioning a stage 2 of downloadable apps that can integrate seamlessly with the social network expereince and enhance it using capabilities such as location etc..
It doesn't mean that this is going to be a winner, as that will all come down to how well Vodafone manage their portfolio of apps (breadth, licencing, etc..) and how clever they are in providing a seamless, intergrated solution to their users. But I'm enthusiastic about this, as it is an example of how an SP can take their destiny into their own hands rather than sit and hope that they can maintain their position by simply offering voice, data and 'also-ran' services. Vodafone seem to be aiming to fight the 'over the top' threat by offering interesting and equally compelling services - and I applaud that!
Posted
09-24-2009 4:21 AM
by
Martin Creaner