Wanna Build a Business? Go After a Poorly-Served Market

Seems pretty obvious, duh? Now, I know I said I wouldn’t write about the iPhone again - and I’m not - but iPhone is the case study laid out by my friend Paul Kedrosky that most clearly illustrates the point I am going to make. Paul’s smart piece in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal titled The Jesus Phone puts its finger on the most elemental but oft-forgotten explanation of the iPhone’s almost cult-like status and the ultimate opportunity for new business-builders: that the market will enthusiastically respond to a product that addresses a core need that is currently being poorly served. And in the case of the iPhone, it is addressing the complete disgust by many if not most of the people toting around mobile devices used for both communicating with others and surfing the Internet:

I’ll tell you. First, people hate their cell phones.
Other than making phone calls — a downright dreary bit of business —
using phones for Internet, entertainment and pretty much anything else
has been abysmal. Cell phones are best characterized as crippled,
paternalistic devices best suited for people who think straitjackets
are comfortable evening wear. They have horrible Web browsers, crummy
screens, and obscure-to-the point-of-opacity interfaces. (After all,
some of the iPhone’s most hyped features, like maps, are on traditional
cell phones as well. You just can’t find the feature.)

But in addition to hating their phones, people hate
their cell phone carriers. Hate, hate, hate, hate. The major cellular
providers — with their ham-handed “support” and fascist control of
software that can run on phones directly — are right up there with the
IRS in terms of inspiring your average mobile phone user’s disgust and
loathing.

Right on. Cutting through all the noise (Steve Jobs’ skills as a marketer, techies’ love for anything Apple, etc.), this is, in fact, the bottom line. And it is not hard to analogize to other products that have erupted due to this same phenomenon, when a customer need is being met but being met in an inadequate manner:

• The rise of the Japanese auto industry by producing high quality, fuel-efficient vehicles (the need: moving from point A to point B. The problem: lousy cars that guzzle gas).

• The emergence of Google (the need: to quickly find relevant information on the Internet. The problem: too time consuming to find what it is you are looking for)

• The growth of Apple in personal computers (the need: to easily access and use a variety of applications in an intuitive way. The problem: non-intuitive operating system and user interface on DOS-based machines)

I could go on but you get the point. It is kind of Paul to knock us in the head to bring us back to what is most basic: if you build a better mousetrap they will come. If you invent a mousetrap, great, but how do you know that people actually want a mousetrap? In the case of Apple, it is irrefutable that people want fun, powerful, easy-to-use mobile devices for both communication and Web access. The fundamental risk of market need has already been borne by the mobile phone industry over the past 20 years. What they are doing is bringing the market a better version of something that already exists; a particularly low-risk, high return strategy if implemented well. And early indications are that it will be. The mobile phone industry left the door wide open for Apple, and they are simply walking through it. Makes sense, right? It does to me.

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COMMENT:

AUTHOR: Anderson

EMAIL: meyon.mark@gmail.com

URL: http://www.getbestcars.com

DATE: 06/30/2007 11:10:39 AM

Great work, keep it up…..

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