Marketers: Prepare for Collaborative Marketing

By Kaitlin Villanova

Thanks to Steve Jobs (Wikipedia) and his team of silent geniuses, we are upon the next big revolution in technology. In his keynote speech on Tuesday, Jobs exposed the meaning behind the teaser on the Apple site claiming "the first 30 years were just the beginning. Welcome to 2007".

Among other things, the most exciting new product that was revealed at this meeting was the iPhone. Jobs describes the products as "an iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator" not three separate devices. This product operated by the command of the best pointing device in the world -- our fingers. They have invented and patented the new technology called multi-touch. First the mouse, then the click wheel, and now the multi- touch.

The phone comes complete with: a 2 megapixel camera, a headset jack, SIM tray, and a sleep-wake switch, a speaker, and mic input. Internally there are 3 advanced sensors:

1. A proximity sensor: bring the iPhone to your ear and your display shuts off and touch screen shuts down.

2. Ambient light sensor: adjusts brightness, saves power.

3. Accelerometer: can tell whether you're in landscape and portrait.

As a marketer, the genius is not just the phone, but the collaborations with the new product. Apple’s iPhone is associated with Google (Google CEO Eric Schmidt joked this paring was called applegoo), Yahoo!, Cingular, and of course it’s very own Apple products and programs, Itunes, Safari and Mac OSX.

So what does all this mean for the marketing community?

In 2001, with the apple iPod, competitors and marketers alike were forced to kick in to high gear to support this revolutionary merging of high technology and music.

With this new mobile communications strategy reeking of "Jobsian" refinements, that fulfills the consumers demand for control marketers are faced with one question: how do I get in on it?

Digg is flooding with information and predictions on how this Cupertino CA based company will cause a shift in the next collaborative marketing. Apple’s answer is simple; in the words of the great one "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it’s been."

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