McGuire’s Law

As we work to build mobility into every product, service, and process, our greatest inhibitor is the mindset represented by those who defend the tethering of products and processes to specific places. This mindset is fueled by the investments that have been made that establish power in the companies, departments, and individuals that stand in the way of mobilizing our lives and our businesses. These investments are not always in hard assets, but often are investments of time and experience to establish intellectual and relational assets. We should expect our assault on these “fixed” ways to be defended to the death. Here are recent examples:

• Airlines scared of a few exploding batteries. (It’s hard to argue airlines are anti-mobility…)
• Movie-goers want cellphones jammed (maybe there are better solutions)
• Walled gardens
• Monopoly mindsets
• Taxes and government monopolies

Complete list here.

(For more context, read the Mobile Declaration of Independence.)

Research is good. Free highlights from expensive research reports are great. Here are some recent headlines:

• 40% of American mobile users text
• NAND Flash memory sales to reach $43B by 2010
• Twice as many would prefer a phone with music built in than vice versa
• Miami and LA mobilites talk the most
• High-performing IT divisions adopt mobile technologies 75 percent faster than average companies
• Mobile TV audience grows 45%
• ABI predicts 4M mobile TV subscribers by YE2007
• The cellular modem market will grow more than 500% over the next 5 years
• Mobility dominates semiconductor market
• One billion 3G cellphone users by 2010
• 19.3M converged mobile devices ship in 2Q

Since most of you read The Law of Mobility during the week, it seems counter-productive to do most of the posting over the weekend. This weekend I’ll post a couple of end-of-month items, but starting Monday, the information you’re used to seeing over the weekend will be spread across the work week.

Have a great weekend!

The ramp in new releases towards Christmas shopping season may have begun. I recently re-loaded with a bunch of music great for going mobile. Check it out:

• Leigh Nash: Blue on Blue
• Ayiesha Woods: Introducing…
• Leeland: Sound of Melodies
• Phil Keaggy: Jammed!
• My Other Band: Volume One

The full list is here.

The Law of Mobility talks about value increasing with mobility. The impact of this law is being felt because the barriers to building mobility in are being obliterated week after week. Here are examples of technology advances enabling this to happen:

• Dense drives
• Gas turbine in silicon
• USB rechargeable battery
• OLED as solar panel
• 5MP HD image sensor
• Tiny projector
• App virtualization
• Muscle command

Full list here.

More and more, the world around us reflects the growing assumption of the law of mobility. Each week we will track indicators of Mobility’s growing importance in our businesses, our lives, and our society:

• 104 bidders pay $13.7B for AWS spectrum
• 3G on private jets
• Motorola buying Symbol for $3.9B
• Cellphone vending machines
• More wireless than wired in Ohio

Full list here.

Mobility is a wonderful thing. As mobility gets built into all products and services, businesses need to learn how to both capture the power of mobility and manage the dangers introduced through mobility. Here are some examples of how the power of mobility is being applied to create competitive advantage:

• McDonalds uses cameraphone codes to share nutrition info
• Fast food companies accepting carry out orders by text
• Chuck D Mobile redefining the music industry
• Sony using M-BUZZ to launch new artists

Complete list here

In order to be winners in the new mobile era, businesses will not only need to capture the power of mobility, but also manage the danger. Highlighted below are recent examples of the danger of mobility and how some firms are beginning to manage it:

• Blackberry thumb
• Choice overload
• Mobile security outsourcing
• Pickpocket notification
• Exploding batteries
• Credit card theft

The complete list is here.

Earlier this week, Motorola announced the acquisition of Symbol Technologies for $3.9B.

The move signals that Motorola understands the distinction I made yesterday. Everyone’s using a phone, or smart devices like Moto’s Q, but the real Mobility Revolution is just beginning. And the huge opportunity for companies like Motorola will be in fully integrating mobility into how companies do business. Once a company transforms a manual process that forces employees to return to a fixed location and turns it into an automated process that goes with the need, the benefits in employee productivity, customer satisfaction, and increased information velocity and accuracy can’t be lost by returning to pre-mobile ways.

Symbol has been a leader in making this happen in the real world, as I was reminded again yesterday as I signed for a package on a Symbol device.

Here’s how Motorola described Symbol: “Symbol is a leader in designing, developing, manufacturing and servicing products and systems used in end-to-end enterprise mobility solutions featuring rugged mobile computing, advanced data capture, radio frequency identification (RFID), wireless infrastructure and mobility management. The company’s products and services help customers increase workforce productivity, improve customer service and enhance operational efficiencies by delivering information in real-time, as people, information and assets are on-the-move.”

Acknowledging Symbol’s success to date, Motorola’s investment power and brand-recognition in the c-suite will undoubtedly accelerate the adoption of mobility for an increasing range of critical business processes.

Power up!

The most convenient way that mobility is getting built into products is through the convergence into the cellphone of capabilities that previously existed as standalone products. That way, those products are now with you and available for your use whenever you need them wherever you go.

• Cellphone as camera
• Cellphone as walkie-talkie
• Cellphone as newsreader
• Celphone (plus VCR) as TiVo
• Cellphone as wristwatch
• Cellphone as PC remote control
• Cellphone as blood pressure and diabetes monitor

Complete list here.