How To Get A Piece Of A $6.2 Trillion Market
A message from Radio Ink Publisher Eric Rhoads
A message from Radio Ink Publisher Eric Rhoads
If you've been around long enough, you've heard many a speaker ask you what business you're in and show you new ways to look at that business. You, of course, think you're in the radio -- or advertising or network or content -- business. Ten years ago, you might have said Apple was in the computer business. But when Apple launched iTunes, you could say it was in the music business, as the largest music retailer in the world. iTunes then made Apple a distributor of movies and TV shows. Then, when Apple launched the iPhone, you might have said it was in the smartphone business.
Of course, with 10 billion apps downloaded, that puts Apple in yet another business, as a software distributor.
Now Apple is ready to dwarf everything else it has ever done as it enters the mobile payment business. Apple is about to tap in to a $6.2 trillion market.
Ever hear of an NFC chip?
Remember when Mobil gas stations came out with the little wand you could wave in front of the gas pump to put the gas on your credit card? Soon every iPhone and iPad will include an NFC chip, and Apple will be in the mobile payment business. A hundred million registered iTunes users who have already given Apple their credit and debit card info will be able to use an iPhone or iPad at retail outlets to pay for groceries, clothes, and everything else they buy. That removes the credit card companies from the loop so Apple can collect the transaction fees currently collected by MasterCard and Visa.
Apple has already created a prototype small-business terminal that can scan iPhones and iPads, and it's considering giving the terminals away to any retailer who wants them to gain fast nationwide adoption.
Oh, Google will be including NFC chips in the Nexus S phone, but Google lacks the iTunes infrastructure. Google Payments is a competitor to PayPal, but it doesn't have the registered users and credit card info Apple already has in place. Apple's entry into mobile payments will not only change the game, it will become Apple's largest revenue source and will disrupt numerous industries.
With each platform Apple builds, we see it enter and dominate a new business with game-changing usability and lightning speed. Instead of thinking of itself as just a computer company, Apple builds platforms and find new ways of exploiting those platforms. Once this NFC platform is in place, Apple will have leverage to create even more new, game-changing platforms.
What about you? What lessons can you take from Apple? What do you have that you can leverage to move you into a new business? What else can you do with your loyal users and audiences to change the game? It's an important question to ask -- before others figure out the answers.
Eric Rhoads
Radio Ink
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