Reality Check: “A” is for access

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
How do you “make it big” or “get the “big break?” You need access. Assuming you have the talent, you need to know the right person and be in the right place at the right time to make it “on the list.” The implication here is that a few control entry, and, using their divine wisdom, make decisions about who succeeds and who goes back to the drawing board. The velvet cord comes down for a select group, and those who gain entrance to the club receive insights, wisdom, experience, and even opportunity that aren’t available to outsiders.
The scaling wall is highest in industries where distribution channels are limited. For example, twenty or thirty years ago (P.I. – Pre-Internet) it would have been difficult to think about the prospects for an independently produced TV series that didn’t leverage traditional broadcasting. Even five years ago, developing a business productivity application for mobile phones required a lot of software development resources and a large sales force. From music to TV to software, the walls have come tumbling down.
Perhaps the largest wall remaining to scale, however, exists in the publishing industry. P.I., the costs of printing and advertising were enormous and “slotting” on the sales rack? Forget about it. We had no Google to draw in visitors and place ads on our sites – no Twitter to provide real-time announcements of the latest breaking news – no forum to allow unedited discussion. Could you imagine Engadget or Gizmodo as printed publications?
To take real-time publishing to the next level, however, we need a new and different vehicle, as well as a new business model. Enter the Apple Tablet and the next version of the bigger, badder Amazon Kindle. Sure, the first version is going to be pricey – so was the first iPod (see my previous article on Apple’s launch). And reading a children’s book through my TV – it might be a stretch at first, until the next Dr. Seuss emerges (think about all of the reading aids that could be tied into popular Nickelodeon shows and the impulse purchase opportunities that could be triggered, or how we could link a specific Science Channel program to classroom curriculum). The air of innovation, when injected into the balloon of tradition, can only be contained for so long. Then it bursts.
Amazon started to transform the business model last week, enriching author royalties in exchange for reasonable pricing, and opening up the Kindle APIs to accommodate games beyond Mine Sweeper. They also started an innovative target marketing program that offers money-back guarantees if you buy a Kindle and don’t like it after 30 days. If “A” is for book access, Amazon is the new velvet cord, and they are ready to party.
Enter Apple with their recent iTunes and App Store success. Using their brand and marketing prowess, they could take out publishers and broadcasters with one product. Is the tablet a (half) terabyte iPod? Yes. How about a portable DVP (player as opposed to recorder)? Yes. Is it a phone? Well, as a matter of fact, it can handle VoIP and Skype through your home’s Wi-Fi. Can I read a book on it? You can do more than that – you can experience the book, learn more about the setting, characters, and even craft your own ending! Can it crawl the iTunes store and, on a cable-like subscription basis, get me relevant stats just like the sportscasters have? Sure can. The font on that “A” just got a bit bolder and larger – in fact it’s a double “A” – Apple Access, a category of its own.
To build the new world, we need the old. My namesake, the fantastic author and former advertising executive James Patterson, can thrive in this new world. So can Stephanie Meyer, John Grisham, and Dan Brown. All of these authors have multi-media products today. But access is now available to all – who will emerge as the next teen phenomenon, broadcaster, life coach, or business book guru with even more effective habits about moving cheese?
We may be at the beginning of something very big, as the wall of access comes down.
Jim Patterson is CEO & co-founder of Mobile Symmetry, a start-up created for carriers to solve the problems of an increasingly mobile-only society. He was most recently President – Wholesale Services for Sprint and has a career that spans over eighteen years in telecom and technology. He welcomes your comments at jim@mobilesymmetry.com.