I am at a toy shop which is kind of moderately full with Angry Birds branded toys, games and other similar items of children. But, this presence of angry birds has reduced considerably as over last few months, when the angry birds game was a runaway success. This reduced popularity reminds me of the product obsolescence or in other words the reducing product,lifecycles in internet economy. This game Angry birds was trending big time on play store but now a days nobody seems interested in playing it forget downloading. Similar is the case, with other applications and games which seem less relevant these days,viz. Temple run, Candy Crush, Flipboard, Pulse and count goes on.
I think there is much more, to this changing behavior of users, apart from the reduction in epistemic value soon after the initial download from the app stores. The probable answer could be the fast changing internet landscape driven by
•reducing attention span of users towards any product
•inability of products to evolve themselves to keep the user engaged, the surprise factor is missing
•availability of superior me too products
•and the switching cost of these products for the users, which is presently Zero.
Thus, for any internet product company it is very important to stay relevant to the user group or built in a fan following or in other words develop a sustainable competitive advantage. There are products which have been able to extend their lifecycle, a perfect example could be Whatsapp...which kind of displaced the existing Khalifas of its domain such as BBM and other IMs. Despite multiple attempts by competition such as Wechat, line etc to displace this product, there was no,success . I don't have the correct reason for that but one reason could be the first product of its kind which is generically applicable to all operating systems, and their(Whatsapps') ability to define their competition as Traditional SMS, and not the other IMs.
These changes are accelerating every moment, and apply equally not only to the software companies but to device companies as well. It is even more difficult for the handset manufacturing OEMs where the inventory and SKU management is an uphill task. Smaller manufacturers like Micromax, Lava , Karbonn are having a tough time in bringing out the replicas of technically advanced Samsung ,Apple, Sony,HTC,Nokia devices. At the same time, these established brands have severe headache by constantly innovating themselves and command the premium and retain if not increase the market share.
With technologies like AR,ANW, driverless cars, internet balloons, the future is certainly bright and amazing for end users, but is very challenging for the OEMs who have the onus of developing the hardware to take these innovations at the door step,of the end user.
I think there is much more, to this changing behavior of users, apart from the reduction in epistemic value soon after the initial download from the app stores. The probable answer could be the fast changing internet landscape driven by
•reducing attention span of users towards any product
•inability of products to evolve themselves to keep the user engaged, the surprise factor is missing
•availability of superior me too products
•and the switching cost of these products for the users, which is presently Zero.
Thus, for any internet product company it is very important to stay relevant to the user group or built in a fan following or in other words develop a sustainable competitive advantage. There are products which have been able to extend their lifecycle, a perfect example could be Whatsapp...which kind of displaced the existing Khalifas of its domain such as BBM and other IMs. Despite multiple attempts by competition such as Wechat, line etc to displace this product, there was no,success . I don't have the correct reason for that but one reason could be the first product of its kind which is generically applicable to all operating systems, and their(Whatsapps') ability to define their competition as Traditional SMS, and not the other IMs.
These changes are accelerating every moment, and apply equally not only to the software companies but to device companies as well. It is even more difficult for the handset manufacturing OEMs where the inventory and SKU management is an uphill task. Smaller manufacturers like Micromax, Lava , Karbonn are having a tough time in bringing out the replicas of technically advanced Samsung ,Apple, Sony,HTC,Nokia devices. At the same time, these established brands have severe headache by constantly innovating themselves and command the premium and retain if not increase the market share.
With technologies like AR,ANW, driverless cars, internet balloons, the future is certainly bright and amazing for end users, but is very challenging for the OEMs who have the onus of developing the hardware to take these innovations at the door step,of the end user.
