Walking along a beach in Tampa one spring day in 1998 i remember getting so frustrated with the new gadget i was cradling i hurled it in the ocean (i smartly retrieved it racked with non-greenness remorse). The offending article and butt of my malice was one of the first MP3 players called the Rio, made by Diamond and it kept freezing. Yes, it was the size of a frizzby and practically needed a set of wheels for transportation but it did allow me to walk around listening to my newly ‘acquired’ songs complements of Napster. So the Rio was buried at some stage in the graveyard of tech gadgets that didn’t make it. It didn’t help that Diamond was also sued by the record industry.
This Rio - Complete with slim parallel port and optional wheels - not this Rio.
Flash forward to 2003 and “a 1000 songs in your pocket” arrives. The super hero of digital music swings into action to save the world: the iPod. Or to be more accurate the iPod and iTunes side by side. Just 3 years later iPod/iTunes had become a $10 billion juggernaut. So what happened? Well, it’s all about pairs, the ying and yang. The Rio was a Lennon without a McCartney, a bow without an arrow, a Keegan without a Toshac (obscure 70′s soccer analogy. Tip – think Liverpool ). Apple’s genius – beyond flawless design and super hype – was to launch a music player only when they could provide the music that was to play on it as well. Getting that music was no mean feet, i know because I spent a hair pulling 12 months trying to secure the music library’s of the major lables for the company i was at in 2ooo. Apple waited though and made the music library an equal part of the package.
The lesson herein lies and it is something sorely missed by a mirth of companies everyday. Apple recognized that people weren’t looking for a gadget that played MP3 files, they were looking for a way to listen to their music – music they owned legally – when they were on the move (“a 1000 songs in your pocket”). That was need, that was what the customer wanted. Defining a business model in terms of a customer need, instead of ‘designing a product’ looking for a need, is at the core of all successful businesses.
When Ratan Tata of the Tata Group looked out over the chaotic streets of Mumbai and saw a whole families stacked atop a single moped, he saw a clear need. Provide a small car priced so a family could afford it. The Nano, the worlds cheapest car at $2500, does just that. And the name, well it was nearly called the Pod instead.
The swollen tick comes with a foot pump for inflating
Only if businesses would first state the customer need and then get creative over product design and not the other way around; we’d all save a lot of chaos and wasted money. Ask the wife riding side-saddle on the rear wheel.
