Why is the Internet Disruptive? What Industries will it Disrupt Next?

Fred Wilson has given a recent Marketing Talk@Google Mountain View. He is a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures. Here's how the talk was described in the email that was sent around Google announcing it:

Fred will be talking about "disruptive industries". Media/entertainment has taken the brunt of the disruptive force of the internet and internet technology but that’s just the start. What industries are next? Energy, education, consumer finance, and health care all seem ripe. What are those industries going to look like in 20 years, 40 years, 60 years?



So what industries are next to be disrupted by the Internet innovations after media? Fred argues that any business that is End To End Digital is a good candidate. He suggests the following list:

• Consumer Finance
• Education
• Energy
• Health Care?
• Government?

Disruption - Final Version

View more OpenOffice presentations from fredwilson.

The Disruption Talk is also available on Fred's blog avc.com.

Top 5 Books on Innovation and Strategy in the Facebook Era

Right this minute, more than 1.5 million people are on Facebook. They’re interacting with friends and talking about brands. They’re learning about businesses and providing valuable information to market and sell. In the Facebook Era, businesses are closer to their customers than ever before.

Clearly, social media is the most important innovation in the recent history of the internet. Web 2.0 is about people - rapidly changing the competitive landscape. Companies must adapt their strategy and execution quickly to be successful in this new world.

The following is list of top 5 (5 star) books on business strategy and execution in the Facebook Era:

• The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff - practical case studies of how actual businesses are using social networking in real life


• The Innovator's Toolkit: 50+ Techniques for Predictable and Sustainable Organic Growth - practical and actionable book on innovation


• The Momentum Effect: How to Ignite Exceptional Growth - best of strategy, marketing, innovation, business development and so much more


• Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day - comprehensive, perfectly paced guide on social media marketing


• The Innovation Zone: How Great Companies Re-Innovate for Amazing Success - practical guide on innovation

Amazon's Platform Business Model

Dr Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, describes Amazon’s platform business model and its ‘flywheel’ for growth on the latest episode of the Telco 2.0 ‘executive brainstorm’ series on Telecom TV. It is well worth the time to watch it.

The other videos are also full of insights:

• Chris Barraclough, co-founder, Telco 2.0 Initiative describes how the ‘two-sided’ telecoms business model works, and what’s needed to turn it into reality
• Martin Geddes, Chief Analyst Telco 2.0 Initiative articulates the untapped opportunity for growth in the core telephony business
• Pieter Knook, Director of Internet Services, Vodafone Group, unveils his vision for a ‘next generation open mobile internet platform’
• Cenk Serdar, Chief VAS Officer, Turkcell on how his company is blazing a trail with identity and banking services
• Evidence that challenges the Long Tail theory
• James Enck, Senior Associate Analyst at the Telco 2.0 Initiative on the impact and opportunity of the Credit Crunch for telcos
• And a stirring speech by Trudy Norris-Grey, MD Strategy & Transformation at BT Wholesale challenging the Telecoms sector to make the change to realise the $375bn Telco 2.0 growth opportunity

Management 2.0: Business Model Innovation

Innovation is core to internet startups. What kind of innovation?

• Business Model Innovation
• Product & Service Innovation
• Process Innovation
• Technology Innovation

It is usually the business model and not the technology that creates unique competitive advantage. Alexander Osterwalder of Arvetica examines the role of business model design and innovation in the age of management 2.0.

Alex examines and visualizes the innovative business models of Zopa, Google, Grameen Phone, Apple iTunes & iPod, Amazon S3, Skype, Netflix and others. It is an excellent and very informative presentation on strategy and innovation.

The slides include valuable tools such as

• Business Model Framework
• Business Model Template
• Big Picture on Business Model
  

iPhone 2.0 SDK Applications to Lead Mobile Internet Innovations

What it takes to have the Internet in your pockets? Apple understands the needs and delivers. The recent announcement of the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) and the iPhone 2.0 marks the start of the revolution of mobile computing:

"What we saw today was the spark. The explosion will continue for twenty years. We will all feel the warmth. Watch the Steve Jobs video from today and you will understand how Apple will dominate the smartphone market for the next 25 years. Wow. What Microsoft and Windows was to the desktop, Apple and Touch will be to mobile. "

Until now the internet experience required a PC or a Mac with a browser, e-mail client and several other applications or clients like Google Earth or Second Life. To deliver this multimedia experience it takes a powerful device and a full featured operating systems like Mac OS X. The Apple iPhone is a unique device that makes true mobile internet experience a reality for the first time.


What makes the Apple iPhone uniquely powerful? Kontra has found 10 reasons in his blog post on Who can beat iPhone 2.0?

1. Design - Apple’s industrial design and highly polished multi-touch interface have no peers
2. Stores - The promise of the iTunes Store-like App Store is genuinely outstanding
3. Pricing - Apple can now leverage its high-volume iPod/Mac businesses to get favorable component prices
4. Games - high-resolution 3.5" screen, Core Animation, H.264 video, SQLite, OpenGL ES, 3-D OpenAL sound, accelerometer and multi-touch makes the iPhone 2.0 the most capable mobile game platform. Have you seen Spore on iPhone?
   
5. WebKit - the Web shines on the iPhone with its multi-touch gestures and big screen
6. Depth - multi-touch patent portfolio and gesture library bridges PCs and mobile devices. Economies of scale, core design competencies and cross-device integration opportunities will give Apple an huge advantage in product design in the post-PC era
7. SDK - Cocoa Touch, the marriage of OS X and multi-touch UI, gives developers access to the hardware, multi-touch controls and events, accelerometer, camera, etc., in the top of the line XCode IDE with built in emulator
8. Enterprise - The mobile space enables Apple to openly court businesses large and small. The enterprise world is a new and significant market for the company.
9. Ecosystem - Apple has already created the biggest-ever ecosystem around a consumer electronics product line with the iPod. No other player has comparable experience in growing a billion dollar plus ecosystem
10. Curatorship - Apple has proven with Mac OS X and the iPod that it can anticipate user needs, trade features for enhanced user experience and carefully distill choices to create coherent and desirable products.

User satisfaction surveys consistently prove actual users love their iPhones at rates far above rival devices. Safari on the iPhone has already captured 71% of the mobile browser market in less than a year.

The new iPhone SDK will start a new wave of innovations in mobile computing with applications such as:

• Reality Tagging
• People Tagging
• Reality Recognition
• Physical Social Networks
• Personalized Travel Guides
• Digital and Physical Treasure Hunt
• Distributed Mobile Games
• Credit Card and Biometrics as Software
• Paperless Receipts & Digital Business Cards
• Medical records as Software
• Physical Browsing & Digital Shopping
• Location/time-based deals

Will Apple Dominate Next Gen Computing? It is hard to tell. But the iPhone value proposition looks great for developers and users alike. A revolutionary new platform is a rare and prized opportunity for entrepreneurs as well. So much so that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has created a $100 million fund to fuel this innovation. KPCB’s iFund™ is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform.

Developers are indeed interested. Apple has announced more than 100,000 SDK downloads in just the first 4 days.

It is certainly a challenge for Google Android, Microsoft and Nokia/Symbian (to catch up?). What do you think?

The War for the Next Generation of Mobile Consumers

Mobile broadband services will revolutionize our life and create opportunities for companies like Apple and Nokia. Who will win the mobile consumers?

The landscape is changing quickly as companies prepare for this war. The moves so far:

• Apple launched the iPhone in collaboration with AT&T
• change the business model for operators and handset vendors
• revenue share agreement with an operators
• European operators O2 and others follows
  

• Nokia made strategic acquisitions
• buying companies such as Intellisync, Sega, Gate 5, Navteq, Enpocket and Loudeye
• introduced Ovi - its music and web services platform
• Vodafone and Telefonica have both plan to offer Ovi services
  

• SonyEricsson
• introduced its own Internet music portal: PlayNow
• Ericsson acquired Tandberg TV, Redback, Marconi and LHS (billing) to build the next generation services network
• Sony builds on its Walkman, Cybershot and Playstation brands to leverage with consumers
  

• Google phone turns out to be an open software initiative
• Android is Google’s open mobile operating system initiative. Check out the demo here and the architecture overview here.
  
• acquisitions for location based services, mobile advertising, chat, search, and others set Google up on a collision with the others. But it is a collision with partnerships.
• the Open Handset Alliance is betting on the revolution of the mobile phone industry. The alliance includes handset manufacturers such as Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG, mobile operators such as Sprint, T-Mobile, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, Telecom Italia and Telefonica, other companies such as Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, eBay, and PacketVideo
• but Android will not appear in phones for about a year
  

• Microsoft is going Live
  
• betting its mobile future on Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger, Live Contacts and Live Spaces and bringing together a total end-user experience
• acquired companies to extend its offerings and plans to acquire about 20 companies—from $50 million to $1 billion—every year for the next five years

Stay-tuned for the coming battle of the internet and mobile giants. On the other hand media and entertainment companies will create new services and experiences on these platforms and devices. Consumers will have many choices as this brand new mobile broadband world unfolds.