The following post is courtesy of Cristian Worthington. Cris’ career has been dedicated to bringing disruptive technologies from inception to market and is currently leading a talented team who have pioneered a new class of media player called MondoPlayer. Please read his blog at mediavidi.com
Vapour Wear!
In the old days, Microsoft would announce a non-existent “upcoming” product (Vapour Wear), thereby killing the market for a competitor’s product that was already available.
Apple has “announced” a Smart Watch, but they don’t actually have one … yet.
The trouble with the Vapour Wear strategy, is it only works if 2 factors are true:
1. There needs to be a proven demand for the product. I see no pent-up demand for watches. So Apple isn’t stealing market from anyone.
2. The company using the Vapour Wear strategy needs to be the market leader, frightening customers away from a small upstart. But Apple isn’t the market leader (assuming there is a market for Smart Watches).
As I see it, Tim Cook realized the iWallet product was lame. He also realized the iPhone 6 was late to the party and he was desperately grasping at straws to create some hype.
We’re into the “commodity phase” of the product cycle. Consumers are too knowledgeable about Smart Phones to fall for a Steve Jobs magic show.
From this point forward, Apple is faced with a wall of very powerful competitors, who routinely get their products to market faster. They are going to need something more substantial than Vapour Wear or they risk becoming another Blackberry.
Read the article on CNET about the new iWatch.
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