ALL THINGS BRIGHT & CONNECTED

ALL THINGS BRIGHT & CONNECTED 

 

Howard J Moorey, Hojomo Group

My Real-Time Strategies for Business revolve around

Media, Mobile, Maps and Motors, i.e. “Social Communications”

Harman Night-CSIP1

#ConnectedMobile

As the Third Industrial Revolution is set to start giving way to the Fourth, we face unprecedented changes to our mobility and to our productivity.

Mobile phone technology means we can work better and smarter away from our desks, and it enables us to gain more from our time, so the boundaries between work and pleasure are becoming increasingly blurred.

As both workers and consumers we want the best possible outcome, but that in turn makes us more demanding – as the world was becoming more connected, a sector of the services industry has been rapidly developing around gaining feedback and enhancing the customer experience, often to differentiate one business from the rest of it’s competition.

Those offering customization services can learn much, and derive great benefit. Providing they listen, learn, offer the best quality, and change often.

This is a Golden Rule which keeps coming up time & time again, no matter what your industry, and is the reason #Disruption is rife.

First and foremost, we don’t want the “standard” product or service anymore – we can use our mobiles to compare absolutely everything, including the apps on the phones, and the phones themselves. We don’t want just any old phone – we want the best components, to suit our purposes, in one package.

The power we have in our hands is both awesome and daunting – we seem to do everything on the move – that is the benefit of being connected. But consider for one moment that the data, and personal information, we need to provide to get things the way WE want, is almost mind-numbing.

This is precisely why many device manufacturers are outsourcing both components and software – to ensure they offer the best package

Take the BlackBerry decision to use Android their new Priv, as an example.

Using their own hardware and supplemental software, then adding Android OS, has introduced a solution (obvious in hindsight) to shortfalls in each. BB could not hope to compete & provide the number of apps available in the Android ecosystem – attempts to bolster this in BB10 with an “Amazon App Store” fell woefully short, leading to lower than expected take-up of their new models Passport & Classic.

However, BB security is legendary, so many governments and financial institutions remained with BB for essential, confidential, mobile operations. This security cloak they have now been able to bring to Android, enabling them to compete head-on with Samsung Knox, and Blackphone, the only two other names making any dent in Android’s major area of weakness.

 

#ConnectedEnterprise

Enterprise Mobility in the workplace has also meant that for many businesses too, the requirement in the field has become far more than just a representative with a mobile phone.

An online offer is essential, especially for major retailers, and innovators aiming to make a difference. The Golden Rule applies here too.

As we break the ties with the office, security becomes an issue, as does the need to professionally handle phone calls, appointments, presentations, planning, contract quotes and administration, all from the car, or a laptop somewhere. Better still, bring the laptop software into the car: HARMAN Connected Services now include the full Microsoft Office 365 suite right in the dashboard.

 

And so to the largest “device” of them all: the automobile….

…..Where Mobile and Mobility merge

Harman Dash-CSIP2

In career days, I gained a business development background in automotive. When added to a passion for all things tech, especially mobile, I was only going to end up in one place – the brand new ecosystem called #ConnectedCars – and it is set to be one of the largest global marketplaces of the next 8-10 years.

Once connected, there will be equally massive scope for customization again.

Whilst upgrading, and adding those personal touches to, our cars – both inside & out – has been commonplace since before the time of the built-in cigarette lighter, the pace and complexity of those tweaks has never been as high as it is today.

On top of that, and despite the promise of autonomous (“self-driving”) cars, there will also be a burgeoning Retrofit sector – just like there was in years gone by – changing standard car radios for a wide variety of stereo & hi-fi systems.

This all means that Auto Manufacturers – with their traditional 5 year renewal cycle – are having to make a massive leap to catch-up with the plethora of connected technologies, and their closer to 5 month cycles.

We, as drivers, have already become well used to what we expect our mobile phones to do for us, and HOW they do it – that tends to be a by-product of your personal choice of mobile operating system. So, naturally, we expect this, in a recognisable format, to be available to us behind the wheel as well. We definitely do not want to have to learn a whole new way of doing things there – that could lead to a massive, and potentially fatal, distraction.

That truth is leading manufacturers to turn to outside expert companies – those already leading the field in connected car technologies – to supply that expertise direct into their new models.

Whilst they have long been used to leaving tyre technology to others to develop, the internal workings of the car, and heavy commercials too, have changed so radically in the last 20 years, that expertise beyond their remit is now an essential “component” of vehicle manufacture in itself.

Connection brings expansion, but only with collaboration. Hence…..

Electric Car battery technologies

Here Mapping & Navigation

HARMAN Service Delivery Platform and 5+1 Security Architecture

 

Hojomo Perspective

This is a very exciting journey, and it’s only just beginning. 2016 marks the start of mass production of #ConnectedCars, and commercials, across the board. In new models deeper and deeper levels of connection will be the expectation and the norm.

To the direct benefit of the manufacturers, every car going on the road will now be able to feedback live data on REAL operating conditions, which, when combined with the benefits of over-the-air updates (commonplace on mobiles), should enable the improvement of unreleased new models at a much faster pace than ever before, and #Disruption in motion.

The next major upheaval comes from the plethora of “OBD” tools for smartphones, which can generally be installed on most vehicles manufactured from 1996 onwards, that are now being released, such as VinLi, Zubie, Mojio and more. The potential data feedback here will revolutionise the motor insurance industry, and the whole vehicle finance and leasing sector at the same time.

Let alone all the unknowns yet to be developed – #Retrofit is here!

Watch this space…..

….. but start here!

 

Brought to you by HARMAN’s Engineering a Connected Life program. The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent HARMAN’s positions, strategies or opinions.