Where did the carriers go wrong?

When you first look at the pretty iPhone with its large screen and dice-rolling capabilities, you probably think that it "reshaped" the industry by forcing BlackBerry to come out with the touchscreen-featuring Storm.

I should mention at this point that I adore my BlackBerry Curve and do not forsee giving up my precious precious QWERTY keyboard anytime soon.

A recent article in BusinessWeek, however, highlight some more subversive ways in which Apple and the iPhone has changed the cellphone industry. Wireless industry. Mobile communications industry. Whatever its known as nowadays.

Wildstrom, Stephen, "How Apple's iPhone Reshaped the Industry," BusinessWeek. 11 December 2008, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_51/b4113078121012.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily (accessed December 15, 2008).

(ps hows my bibliographic form? better?)

I think the neat thing about this article is that it highlights how powerful a company can be in bending the marketplace to its will, and the type of struggles that are behind the scenes in interdependant industries like wireless communications.

"It's remarkable the impact [Apple] has had," says Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM). "They exposed a lot of disintermediation risk in the industry." Balsillie says when RIM proposed application stores a couple of years ago, the carriers were hostile. But Apple's success is forcing the carriers to play. "Now everyone wants [an app store]," Balsillie says, and RIM will oblige next year, offering terms that will give carriers some of the action.

Even neater is the fact that Apple has created much/most/all of this power through marketing. They are able to control the marketplace because they have created a product that consumer want. Apple has obviously been able to tap into consumber desire here. They are also great hype-inducers, which adds considerably to their power as well.

Ahh marketing. So much more than finding customer needs and filling them. Finding vulnerabilities in the business strategies of your competitors and expoiting them. So much more enticing.