Molecularist

I was in a meeting recently and we were talking about the number of people with Nokia phones, the number of Nokia phones sold a year, and other large numbers associated with Nokia.

All that number talk made me think of the magnitude of the mobile world – it dwarfs the PC-based Web world.

Here we are thinking the Web is huge (with a few clever quips, though) and that the PC market is huge, and that Microsoft has the most devices with their operating system on it.

Eh, I don’t think so.

There are more mobile phones than PCs, there are more Net-connected phones than PCs, and the scale of mobile phones means that a few companies (maybe one or two) touch almost all of the mobile phone users in the world in a more personal way than Microsoft, Intel, or even Dell do.

How does the magnitude of all this change the way we deliver services and provide value?

That’s what Nokia must be thinking these days, right?

Link [via JP]: Herald Sun: Fun with a Finn [17may06].

QUESTION 1: Who is the biggest camera manufacturer in the world?

A: Nokia.

Question 2: Who is the world’s biggest music-player manufacturer?

A: Nokia.

Some would argue that these titles should apply only to those making dedicated cameras and MP3 players, but the fact remains that mobile-phone company Nokia makes most of the devices that take photographs and play music.

And it may not be too long before it’s the world’s biggest computer manufacturer as well — a computer being a device with a programmable operating system.

Fabio Sergio has a great brainwave on operators, ‘who will establish a privileged relationship with the customer’, and the ‘ecology of value’ provided by the mobile operators.

This way of putting it is the best I have seen – it puts the whole discussion in neutral and non-confrontational terms that lead to a definite win-win.

Link: f r e e g o r i f e r o | weblog.

That said I’ll start from a "road trip analogy": a highway, vehicles that run on it, scenery along the way and (hopefully) destinations.
Who "owns" the traveling experience?
The organization that maintains the blacktop?
Or the company that owns the gas stations and places where you can stop for rest and drinks?
Or the car manufacturer that provides you with a comfortable ride?
Or maybe the real value lies in what you can see and do once you’ve reached your final destination?

…

In other words I
think that all the players, and especially operators, would be better
off thinking in terms of an "ecology of value" and how each link in the
chain should play an essential role, customers included, rather than relating to each other in terms of sheer supremacy.
They
will hopefully understand that to keep clients happy the focus should
not be on becoming the only surviving species, but to nurture and
defend biodiversity.
After all, who would like to travel in a BrandX car on BrandX roads, sleeping in a BrandX Hotel in BrandX City all the time?

Fabio Sergio, do indeed look me up when you are in Helsinki some day. I look forward to sharing thoughts with you.