Recently I was talking to a friend about the need to keep the mobile industry ticking over. If we can successfully transition from consumer to enterprise, the industry can grow over the next 20 to 30 years.
But as we talked, I realized how rare it is for an industry to start with a large consumer market and then (30 years later) grow a large business revenue stream. Consider some other examples:
- The PC market grew as a consumer business after decades of a major computer company existing in the corporate world.
- Edison supplied electricity to homes and businesses from the beginning.
- Landline telephone services have always been fairly undifferentiated between consumer and business users. Some PBX products are sold to businesses, but the remote service is the same for everyone.
- Henry Ford sold the Model T to both consumers and business customers from the beginning, but later came products for businesses, such as large trucks.
The automotive industry seems to be the best example of a consumer market that has evolved from initial growth to produce a serious, enterprise-oriented segment. Although Karl Benz built the first diesel truck in the 1890s, its commercial success was very weak due to insufficient power.
Larger engines with significant horsepower posed a serious challenge to the industry at the time: to start a large engine, a hand crank was impractical. The weight of a large chassis and the ability to carry a heavy load were difficult challenges. Overheating and other problems prevented the engine from easily scaling up. After World War II, the Americans developed gasoline engines, with Ford introducing the Model 18 in 1932 with an 8-cylinder engine. In Germany, Karl Benz worked with Rudolf Diesel and Gottlieb Daimler to invent electric starters and scale them up to 8-cylinder engines.
Take a look at the timeline: The consumer car market began serious growth in 1908 with the Model T. Of course, the Model T was used by business customers, just as smartphones are used by business users today. It was 24 years after the Model T that the business market (freight transport) finally found a working formula and began to separate itself from the consumer market.
For those working in mobile technology, we should take this history lesson as a warning. It will not be that easy to adapt the 4G/5G network to business customers.
The automotive market needed an electric starter, a lighter chassis and six- to eight-cylinder engines to successfully launch a new business product line. In addition, business customers could not use heavy trucks until the roads were paved. While asphalt paving began in small sections in the 1880s, it wasn’t until 1923 that the first “coast-to-coast paved road” was completed in the United States. It’s no wonder that trucks didn’t become successful as a product until 1932.
In the mobile market, we need edge computing, IoT devices and IT/OT integration software to enable private mobile telephony. My partner Kyung has come up with a diagram to show how multiple aspects of technology and business model must come together to grow Private Cellular in any business market. We call this the ‘Readiness Wheel’.
Nowadays the ‘wheel’ isn’t really round enough to keep the market ‘rolling’. We still need improvements in IoT devices, IT/OT software, and network automation. We need to agree on the business models for different vertical markets. These resemble the electric starters and cobblestone streets of trucking in the 1920s.
At Mobile Experts we are now seeing strong growth in private mobile telephony. Just like in the car market, the transition to a new market is not as simple and easy as it seems. We are starting to turn the corner and success with early adopters is now starting to lead to growth for mainstream customers.
