Over the last few years, technology has threatened many businesses because of the quick pace that it is evolving. The mobile phone business is an example of how a company has to remain competitive and must continue to innovate. Back in June 2007 when Apple unveiled the iPhone it changed the direction of mobile technology. Many market leaders like Motorola, Blackberry, Samsung, Nokia, and LG quickly fell behind. Since then, with the exception of Samsung, barely threaten Apple. These companies did not exactly do anything wrong, rather they were trying to compete within the qwerty keyboard phone bubble. Not much innovation was happening and it seemed like almost all phones offered the same thing with a different brand and dimensions.
The iPhone was something that nobody had seen. It changed the way that mobile phones were being used and paved the way to change not just the mobile phone industry but the music industry, social media, internet, streaming, gaming, and more. Now it simply wasn’t the release of the iPhone that “ruined” companies like Blackberry and Nokia but it was the movement that was happening due to its existence. Because of the iPhone, the Android ecosystem came about and introduced itself as a new competitor, soon to follow was Windows mobile operating system which later proved it could not compete in a market dominated by iOS and Android.
This is something that could potentially affect my sociotechnical plan as well. Since technology continues to grow exponentially, my innovation idea could potentially become outdated quickly. It is expected that there are many organizations that are working towards new innovations. For example, if I select full autonomous navigation for vehicles as my innovation, it is well known that this technology is still young and is continued to be researched. However, since there is no one way to develop this technology it may prove to be difficult to be competitive especially if the solution is expensive or has limitations. Costs and Technology are two driving forces that can affect this innovation. This is something that is currently happening right now. If we look at the mobile phone market again, not many people are buying a mobile phone because of minor innovations but rather for a balance of cost and technology. So in other words how can you still have the latest technology but at a cheaper cost and Apple seems to recently grasp that as well with the release of low-cost iPhones with the same processor as their most expensive model. The smartphone market may be reaching another point in time similar to the mid-2000s, we only wait for someone to introduce us to the next possibilities.
References
Molla, R. (2017, June 26). How Apple’s iPhone changed the world: 10 years in 10 charts. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2017/6/26/15821652/iphone-apple-10-year-anniversary-launch-mobile-stats-smart-phone-steve-jobs
Kevin Tepas 