In less than twenty years, mobile communication went from market introduction (challenging the conventional wisdom that phoning was tied to a fixed location), market acceptance, market saturation, market convergence, and market transformation. During this span, mobile phones became the convergence point for a myriad of traditionally separate industries, among them telecom, Internet, messaging, television, music, photography, news, market intelligence, gaming, banking, security, and navigation — which all drove their core functionality be expanded and then supplanted.
And if all these developments weren’t quick enough, recent trends indicate that the sun may be setting on traditional voice calling plans with users preferring social media apps and other technologies like SMS and email in far greater numbers. In such a fast-changing environment, can anyone afford not to be market driving? In my book, Slingshot, I talk about the market driving path we can take by turning consumer pain points into points of infatuation, continuously expanding the relevance of our offerings and embracing the innovation ‘shortcut’ — combining seemingly unrelated components in smart new ways.
Related story via Tech Crunch:
With voice calling, it’s notable that Facebook has not been building on top of its existing Skype partnership, which in the past had powered a voice calling test on Facebook’s desktop site.
More importantly, the move is pitting Facebook against the phone’s default calling application, as Josh Constine pointed out last month. Because people’s Facebook networks tend to represent their real-world friendships and connections – meaning those people they’re likely to jump on the phone with – Facebook is in a position to actually have an impact in terms of reducing the number of voice minutes a person needs to have on their calling plan.
[Image via topmobileposts.]
