ITEC0722: Mobile Business and Implementation

Suronapee Phoomvuthisarn, Ph.D.suronape@mut.ac.th

Background Brief

• Dr. Suronapee Phoomvuthisarn• PhD in CSE, University of New South Wales, 2011• National ICT Australia (2008 - 2011)

• Research interests– Software Architecture , Service Economics, Trust Computing

• Work History:– Mahanakorn University of Technology (Since 2007)– Position: รองคณบดี�ฝ่ายกิ�จกิารนั�กิศึ�กิษาและประชาสั�มพั�นัธ์�

• http://www.it.mut.ac.th/new/index.php/personal/view/9

• Email: suronape@mut.ac.th

• Room: Q305

2

Course Introduction• Class Objectives

– Overview of mobile business; How to generate revenue by applications on mobile devices

• Lecturer in charge– Suronapee phoomvuthisarn, Ph.D. (1-7)– Suebtas Limsaihue (8-15)

• Materials– Lecture notes– iOS development lab such as in-app purchase implementation– Analytics tools such as Hadoop

Course Outline

• Module 1 (before midterm)– Mobile Business Models– Marketing Concepts and Branding – Digital Marketing and its Channels – Market Research on Mobile Apps’ Trends – How to write a business case– Effective Brand Strategies– Presentation - Your Mobile Application and its

Strategies

Course Outline (2)

• Module 2 (after midterm) – Marketing Analytics– Lab (x4)• StoreKit Framework• Making AppleStore Purchases• iAd Framework• Implementing iAds

– Presentation

Grading Policy

• Exercises / Group Discussion / Quiz - 10%• Midterm Exam - 35%• Presentation - 20%• Final Exam – 35%

Why study Mobile Business?

• The advantage of using “Mobile” devices– Portable– Always on– Personal– Remote access– Localization

• Let’s explore trends of mobile usages

Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales in 2013

Worldwide Smartphone Sales in 2013

Start Thinking Mobile Business

• Which applications can be sold to the customer?• Who is your customer? – Who are the target users?

• Who are your competitors?– How many are they?– Pricing?

• How will you earn money? – What are your strategies and channels to brings app

to customers?

Mobile Applications

Traditional Steps of Running a Business

• The goal of the commercial company is to maximize profits– High volume and cost reductions

• Key performance indicator– Market Share

• Growth through extending the product– taking our current product and bringing it to new

customers– coming up with new and different products seem fairly

different from each other• The competitive advantage: product expertise• Product-oriented organizational structureThis is the product-centric approach to business

Galbraith (2005), Designing the Customer-Centric Organization

Challenges in Product-Centric Approach

• Technology-enabled product development –> commoditization

• Technology-enabled information flow -> smart customers

• Technology-enabled delivery -> Products are now available everywhere

Examples

• IBM (International Business Machines)– Develop certain kinds of computer machines (Old days )

(product -centric)– In 1990s being a trusted advisor (these days)

• IBM achieves higher margins as a solution provider– This expertise doesn't Commoditize nearly as much as

any one product might. – They do a business around a deep understanding of their

customers.This is customer-centric approach

Which of these retailers are highly“customer centric”?

• Walmart• Apple• Starbucks• Nordstrom

What is customer centricity?

• Customer centricity is a strategy that aligns a company’s development/delivery of its products/ services around the current and future needs of a select set of customers in order to maximize their long-term financial value to the firm.

• Customer centricity requires the company to be willing and able to change its organizational design, performance metrics, and employee/distributor incentive structures to focus on this long-run value creation/delivery process.

Customer-centric Approach• The goal of the firm is to maximize profits• Celebrate customer heterogeneity: distinguish the

profitable customers from the less profitable ones• Focus on future profitability (customer lifetime value)

rather than past profits• Success arises through enhanced (and/or more

efficient) customer acquisition, retention, and development

• Customer-centric organizational structure• The competitive advantage – “relationship expertise”

with respect to focal customers

Galbraith (2005), Designing the Customer-Centric Organization

Reflections on customer centricity

• Customer centricity does NOT suggest that “nonfocal” customers should be ignored or “fired;” to the contrary, it is important to have a healthy proportion of such customers to add a high degree of stability and robustness to the overall customer base. (Think of them like cash in an investment portfolio.)

• Taking this idea further, there is a paradox of customer centricity: the more that a firm tightens its central focus on a select group of customers, the more it needs its “non-focal” customers to stabilize the overall mix.

Discussion questions• According to the usage trends of mobile applications, think

of one application you want to do business.– Who is the customer? Can your organization come up with a

single, consensus answer to this question, or can you at least reconcile the roles/relationships of the different potential customers?

– What are the major barriers to account for? Develop a comprehensive list, ranked by the importance/difficulty of each barrier.

– What resources can you utilize to overcome these barriers?– Thoughts about what competitors are doing in this area?– Does it make sense for your organization to become customer

centric? If so, what should be your immediate goals and expectations?

Worldwide Survey of Mobile App Users by by Soo Ling Lim, 2013

• http://infogr.am/app-user-survey-0?src=web

What is the distribution of users across mobile app platforms?

How frequently do users visit their app stores to look for apps?

On average, how many apps do users download per month?

How do users find apps?

What triggers users to start looking for apps?

Why do users download apps?

What types of apps do users download?

What are the factors that influence users' choices of apps?

Ratings influence app selection: why do users rate apps?

Why do users pay for apps?

Why do users stop using an app?

Age and Gender

• http://www.d2c.co.jp/en/news/2012/20130130-1613.html

Type of Work

References

• Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage, by Peter Fader

• Introduction to Marketing Course, University of Pennsylvania