if connected

Everyone knows the biggest battles in technology are today being fought by a small number of large organizations. We intuitively know who these great powers are: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and maybe Microsoft. But we’re not so clear on what it is that makes those particular companies the key protagonists rather than other equally large digital companies — Samsung, Sony, Nokia and Yahoo! among them — who appear to be sidelined.

Calling this a battle, or “The Great Tech War of 2012″, misses the point. It’s far too negative a sentiment when these companies’ main focus is on long term strategy. They are aiming to construct a future in which their products and profits will prosper.

These great digital powers are now building Digital Civilizations, rather than a series of mere products, individual platforms or even ecosystems (around a platform). They are pursuing strategies that reach far beyond the confines of existing markets. They are causing widespread market collisions as they push industries to overlap, merge or cease to exist. They are outflanking and disrupting companies that follow less ambitious corporate strategies.

These new Digital Civilizations use identity to tie numerous disparate products, many devices, multiple platforms and product portfolios together into their long term strategy. Each Civilization has hundreds of millions of active users — often with credit cards attached — far more than even the largest telecom operators or media companies. They straddle industries rather than operating within legacy market sectors. They have an organizing ideology underlying their strategy that motivates and attracts talented employees, excites partners, and is the foundation for the marketing that entices users to become their customers.

What defines these Digital Civilizations? What makes them new and different? Many organizations, companies, industry consortiums, and companies have parts of this strategy in place within their current products. But the new Digital Civilizations have all of the following characteristics:  Read the rest of this entry »

A major part of Apple’s new iOS software update is iMessage, which replaces the iPhone’s standard SMS app. The iOS5 software is compatible with approximately 200m of the 250m total iOS devices sold, including both the older iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 models, as well as the iPod Touch and iPad. It’s also installed on all new devices including the iPhone 4S. As of today, over 25 million devices now have iMessage installed and Apple sold 4m iPhone 4S handsets on its first weekend on sale.

The way iMessage works is extremely interesting. In so doing, iMessage cannibalizes carriers’ SMS and MMS services:

• Any messages sent from an iPhone to another iPhone with iMessage installed are automatically sent by iMessage over the Internet rather than via SMS. This bypasses carrier text messaging (SMS) charges but requires a working data tariff.
• Similarly, any photos or videos sent over iMessage bypass costly operator MMS systems. There’s even an iMessage preference option for users to switch off MMS so they do not inadvertently incur MMS charges when they’re intending to send for free via iMessage.
• Messages can be sent to or from iOS devices that lack SMS capability, such as the iPad and iPod Touch.
• Users can address messages to an email address rather than a phone number. This is essential to send messages to an iPad or iPod Touch. New iMessages sent to a phone number only appear on an iPhone. Any messages addressed to an email address are sync’ed to all iOS devices tied to that Apple ID.
• Users can change their iMessage “Caller ID” to be their email address so that any replies go to all of their devices. This is very similar to the way Apple’s video chat service, FaceTime, setup works. Additionally, users can attach multiple email addresses so that iMessage will receive messages sent to any of a selection of email addresses.
• By default, iMessage does not report whether a message has been read but there’s an option to set this to “on”. There’s also an optional ‘Subject’ field that starts out “off”.

iMessage is clearly Apple’s take on BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), small messaging players such as Whatsapp or eBuddy, and Internet instant messaging systems such as Microsoft Live Messenger or AIM. But iMessage does not the deliver the precise same mix of product benefits as any of those alternatives.

Apple has a number of differentiated twists on their execution that guarantee iMessage will be a success:

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