Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is widely recognised as having been one of the most successful venture capitalists of the last quarter-century. When she speaks, Silicon Valley listens intently.
In December she published her analysis of web, mobile, technology and social trends. Her findings are both compelling and for anyone still operating in the old economy, chilling. In essence, the message is that the world is being reinvented.
Her research identifies that the number of tablet and smart phone devices now being manufactured already exceeds the production of PCs and laptops. By Q2 of 2013 it is projected that there will be more tablets and smart phones on the planet than their will be PCs and laptops.
The platform for the future is mobile. Her argument is that almost everything in the world is being re-imagined powered by new devices, connectivity and compelling user interfaces. Society has long ago passed the Microsoft vision of a computer in every home. We are not far short of a computer in every room and on the verge of a chip in everything.
It would be easy to dismiss this as an entirely American scenario, yet the latest research published by Ofcom shortly before Christmas identifies that in reality the UK is a world leader in the adoption of mobile technology, with 58 per cent of consumers now owning a smart phone and nearly one in five having already acquired a tablet. It was equally clear in the run-up to Christmas that whilst the iPad may still dominate in the quality market a price war between Google Android powered devices and the new Amazon Kindle Fire is clearly taking place, with a price point of £159 for entry-level devices on each platform making them highly affordable.
Research by Aviva identifies that approximately 30 per cent of advisers already have a tablet device, with a
further 25 per cent expecting to
acquire one within the next six months. Few industries have been more reluctant to embrace the use of technology in front of their customers than financial advisers but I am seeing clear evidence, week in week out that tablets are radically changing such behaviour.
For many years the industry has been trying to embrace e-commerce and use technology to drive out cost, yet for the most part the solutions being delivered and adopted focus around PC technology which can now be clearly demonstrated to be in decline.
The benefits of tablets and smart phones are not solely defined by their size and portability. In fact the far more compelling usability should be recognised as the key factor. Against this background I believe it is time for a radical change. When designing new consumer facing services organisations need to think about mobile first.
While this brings with it many challenges, not least the need to support multiple platforms, Apple, Google, Microsoft and possibly still Blackberry, as Mary Meeker’s research identifies we are moving from a world where the concept of “computer says no” is no longer acceptable. Indeed increasingly the reality that will be faced by those organisations who fail to deliver over consumers chosen mobile devices will be “customer says no”.
While the internet liberated consumers from the need to speak to information gatekeepers such as advisers and made knowledge widely available, it is the mobile platform that has made information truly ubiquitous.
Today there is virtually no industry that mobile digital communications is not deconstructing and reconstructing.
The rampant advance of key digital communications technology will result in advisers needing to constantly review and re-evaluate where and how they deliver added value to consumers. For those that are nimble enough to react this creates enormous opportunities and can make it practical for relatively small organisations to compete effectively with others many times their size. Conversely, large organisations must not seek to excuse themselves from the need for radical transformation because of their size.
Given the current pace of the communication revolution this public embracing a mobile first approach will be a survival issue for firms of all shapes and sizes. This is a classic case of Darwinian evolution, it will not be the strongest that survive, but those who can best adapt to change.