By Dan Baldwin
As a business owner you know that the most valuable commodity any of your best managers or employees command is time. You know you also secretly dream that you can "do something" that will magically give your people "more time" to do their best work (while still paying them the same amount of money.)
Google's purchase this past week of Motorola Mobility may just help you do that "something" you've been looking for to give your people "more time" to make you money.
How?
By turning the smart phone into a "magic wand" for your business.
What?
Imagine how much more money your business could make if every time your best "rain makers" encountered a productivity hurdle they could point their "magic wand" smart phone at it and make that productivity challenge disappear?
I'll use myself as an example. Several times a year I go on business trips to see just as many business clients as possible in a specific metropolitan area. Because I'm extremely frugal (cheap), I try to fill a day with as many appointments as possible. Because I have to drive from one appointment to the next in an unfamiliar town I used to spend hours printing out detailed directions between appointments - and then later tried to read the directions while I drove between appointments.
When I finally realized that my smart phone doubles as a "talking navigator" I saved a ton of time preparing for each trip. I likely also saved my life by giving up "reading directions while driving 60 mph!
What does a "talking navigator" have to do with Google's Motorola purchase?
The navigation "application" that now comes standard with almost any smart phone is a great solution that serves almost the entire population of smart phone owners. But what about similar "mobile business applications" that serve a much smaller business audience of smart phone owners?
What if your smart phone "magic wand" only worked if at least 100,000 other business people also wanted to do the same magic business trick the same way?
What if the magic smart phone "kinda worked" but only delivered about 50% of the business trick you needed to make using the smart phone worth your time?
I think that making YOUR magic smart phone work EXACTLY the way you need it to work for your UNIQUE business is what Google ultimately has in mind with the Motorola purchase.
Standardizing Android Smart Phone Applications on Motorola hand Sets
Google's "open" smart phone operating system software called Android allows "business smart phone applications writers" to focus their efforts now on making sure the business applications they are writing for one business or thousands of businesses work perfectly on at least one set of smart phone handsets - Motorola.
This will bring Google/Motorola on par with Apple's iPhone in the business realm where conventional wisdom has held that iPhone's business apps work perfectly but disallow tinkering while Android's business apps allow tinkering but don't work the same on different handset platforms.
Does It Work? Is It Available? Is It Affordable? Is It Scalable? Can I Own My Own Code?
These are the questions business owners ask whenever a new "business productivity application" is brought to their attention - usually by a office technology salesperson. The answers to these five questions all need to be "yes" to get a purchase decision.
Google's Motorola purchase puts Apple on notice that they are not ceding the business phone application market to the iPhone and "doubles down" on Google's commitment to make sure the business applications business owners are buying actually work perfectly on at least one line of handsets.
More zillion dollar companies competing for your smart phone business application business is a good thing and will definitely increase your business profit by giving your best people more time to make you money.
What Do My Smarter Friends Have to Say About Google + Motorola?
In an effort to not drink too much of my own Kool-Aid, I try to stay in pretty close contact with peers that are actually much smarter than me. When this Google + Motorola news broke yesterday I asked the wireless smart phone subject matter experts (SMEs) I know, "How do you think the Google/Motorola deal will effect the mobile communications decisions businesses are making today, six months from now and two years from now?"
Here's what they had to say:
Tem Wu, Wireless SME from WTG
"Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility shows their commitment to protecting the Android Ecosystem: the Android OS, the hardware partners and the application developers. The combination of the developer friendly Android OS and a variety of hardware choices in smart phones and tablets, give businesses the opportunity to custom tailor solutions for their specific needs.
All of the 4G handsets released in the US have all run the Android operating system. We can expect businesses to continue evaluate their mobility strategies over the next 12 months; hence, you won’t see the nonchalant renewal of carrier contracts and device refreshes that we’ve been accustomed to.
Instead we are going to see a tremendous shift in what mobile devices are expected to do; businesses will change from a ‘stay connected (e-mail)’ to an ‘increase my productivity’ expectation of mobile devices and carrier solutions.
Natasha R. Coons, Wireless SME from Teranova
"I think that even though this purchase is explained as a “defensive” tactic in order to protect Android from Apple and Microsoft’s attacks, Google now has increased their workforce by 60% overnight and forces them to play in hardware manufacturing which they have no experience in. Hardware manufacturing is a low margin commodity business. However Motorola manufactured the first commercial mobile cellphone, has a stockpile of patents that Google can use to defend itself against lawsuits and this could translate into better long term options for the users of the Android operating system.
From a consumer perspective, it will be interesting to see if Google will leverage the Motorola purchase to reduce the current fragmentation of its open OS model to a more unified and “supercharged Android” that will be as relevant, compelling and dominant as the iPhone. Now that they control both the hardware and software, they could potentially create better phones.
Interesting enough, although Android leads the way in U.S. market share, a recent small survey of 216 users by investment bank Piper Jaffray showed that iPhone users have a 94 percent retention rate compared to Android users' retention rate of 47 percent. Translation: the Android OS has low brand loyalty in comparison to Apple's iPhone. This acquisition of Motorola might change this consumer behavior to create higher brand loyalty.
Since HTC and Samsung are two of the top movers of Android phones, users will likely continue to operate on the Android operating system unless Samsung or HTC ceases to license Google's mobile software. Although publicly, Google’s hardware partners are releasing positive statements about the move, the deal creates major channel conflict. Google is now competing with its partners.
So What Do You Do Now Before Your Next Smart Phone Purchase or Upgrade?
Call us!
We're not just in the business phone system and broadband Internet business. We're in the "making-your-business-more-profitable-using-office-technology" business.
What "magic wand" mobile business applications do you want your next smart phone "to do"? Helping you economically achieve that vision is what we do.
We don't represent just one smart phone manufacturer or carrier. As telecom agents we represent all the providers that can help you and we can help navigate you to the carriers, applications writers or solution providers with the mobility experience you need at a price you can afford.
Call us.
Looking for a Southern California based, vendor neutral business communications technology service expert that can help you out with your multi-location telecom or data network problems?
Click here to learn about how we might be able to fix your problem for free, then contact me directly at 951-251-5155 or [email protected].
BaldwinTel helps multi-location businesses across the United States but specializes Southern California especially San Diego County, Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County.
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