I was listening to a podcast last week, and of viewpoints really struck me.
The topic being discussed was the upcoming release of Windows Phone 7. For the uninitiated, Microsoft is launching their next mobile phone platform at the end of the year. It’s a relaunch of their platform in many ways, and could be summarized as an effort to refocus the brand toward the consumer-space (i.e. compete against the iPhone).
One of the guests postulated that Windows Phone could still sell well in the business market, because all business’s care about are things like remote-wipe, VPN-connectivity, etc. This really struck as as shortsighted, as it completely misses what’s happening to business technology use.
Technology is becoming more and more a part of our lives. Smartphone use continues to rise, notebook sales continue to rise, etc — technology, as it relates to business, is becoming less about the machines you use at the office and more about what you have around nearly every waking minute of the day.
As a specific example, it wasn’t surprising to see the iPhone take corporate networks by storm over the last couple years. People want to use the technology they like, and they’re not especially excited about taking what their IT support give them. Even as corporate network policies stated “NO UNAUTHORIZED DEVICES ALLOWED”, executives continued to buy the devices they actually wanted to use. In the end, the proliferation of these “consumer” devices caused many network policies to change.
It’s the job of IT support personnel to find solutions that their clients want. Just focusing on traditional “business” platforms will leave clients unhappy, and have them seeking nice/cooler/sleeker options elsewhere. I’d rather sell someone an iPhone that they’ll use and love, than a “business” BlackBerry that they’ll use for their e-mail only. And naturally, that’s better business strategy — making clients happy will help you keep those clients and earn some recommendations for new ones.
(P.S. I don’t mean to praise/pick on Apple/RIM too much specifically, but I wanted to use some current examples– the mobile phone market changes quickly and it’s anyone’s guess what the next hot thing will be).