"Software, Software, Software !" shouted the guy outside an IT Hub market in New Delhi. For a minute I was taken aback ! bcoz this kind of selling software's by yelling is not something which i have heard or have seen. so it was definitely a pleasant surprise. Curious as I m ,I went to the guy selling the software asked him whether he is aware about the software's he is selling. He handed over paper menu to me which has alphabetical list of all the software's starting from Adobe to Microsoft. What amused me is door to door selling of software's which we never imagined 5 yrs. back. With the growing penetration of internet and data connectivity, the day is not far off when internet will be commodity rather than luxury. This is good sign for all the people who are in Software segment.
Human needs are changing and annually new needs are added. From the days when we had to wait for few months to get new connection to the days where we are buying software at the roadside, we can say we have come a long way.
So the question we should ask is -What is store for marketer ? Will this door to door selling work for software industry ?. Of course it will work in India where we are used to buying stuff at the roadside be it fastfood like gol gappa or aaloo chaat. Can softwares be compared to fast-food ? yes to some extent as both are part of our daily need. From taking help to finish child homework to cooking tips to creating animated presentation we have been taking help of software's hence we can conclude that software are definitely part of our daily need and are consumed on daily need basis.
Needs are the essence of marketing. The key to software success, profitability and growth in a highly competitive marketplace is its ability to identify and satisfy unfilled consumer needs better and sooner than the competition. In the software scenario we can have many examples where a need of consumer was converted into a product and it was successful in the market. e.g when applications were being launched, many consumers were pissed off with the forceful selling and they preferred app store where they can have many buying options from free to try n buy to paid. All these lucrative pricing combining with the apps were the hot selling on the app store. The mistake which the app store guys did was giving the apps for free. Anything which is free is considered as product with zero value. Whatever comes easy is not sustainable is the common thought ! Being in app business my advice to all the stakeholders of app ecosystem (from OEMs to operators to developers) will be to realign the go to market strategy. Free usually is not good pricing. However I see bright future for the developers as they will be key to app delivery to end consumers. Customer satisfaction to creating product landscape, developers will be the game changers of app ecosystem. They will also decide the future of Operating System they want to work on. Developers forum of a operating system will decide the future of platform. In the current scenario there are many OS players in the market. The key to the success of these OS will be able to align with developers. More developers - More development on OS- More options to choose apps from - More consumers will buy the phone with OS giving maximum value. Are we saying here that apps will decide the future of OEM ? Yes to some extent as everything can be matched but not the service or value. Value creation is completely different ball game and are game changers of many industry. If OEM has exclusive tie up with developers and are giving more value in terms of apps then definitely consumers will be enticed to purchase a particular brand which gives more value. Ending the conversation with the conclusion that Apps are the future of mobile and developers are the creators of the future !
