<<Read Part 1: Owning The Chasms

In the post “Owning the Chasms” I presented the model of the Chasms in the digital world, and argued that the digital service providers, such as Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Apple are striving to own the chasms in order to take control and ensure sustainability in the services they offer. If you have not read it yet, please click here, and read it before you continue.

After publishing that post we have seen even more industry moves toward this direction (Couple of examples: Facebook's latest move should be making Cisco very nervous and Amazon Has Quietly Acquired 2lemetry To Build Out Its Internet Of Things Strategy) and witnessed several hours of downtime at Apple’s itunes and app store (Extended downtime for Apple's iTunes, App Store and more lingers for hours) which may be related to this discussion as well.

So now what? What are the needs of the service providers in order to own and control the chasms? What does it mean for the ecosystem? What are the hidden and unhidden opportunities for established companies and for new startups, and how can they help the growing symbiosis between digital service providers and the people?

In the next section, I outline overall categories related to these chasms (sorry, trying to stay under 700 words…). Ask yourself, for each bullet, how you (your company, technology, invention) can help.

Chasm #1: Services – Pipes

1. Quality of service – make sure there are no downtime for the service, no hiccups, ensure reliability of the services
2. Level of service – Guarantee robustness, upgradability (future ready), capacity, speed, low latency, make switching from other services to yours as easy as possible.
3. Security – Cyber protection, etc.

Chasm #2: Pipes – Interfaces

1. Coverage – ensure the service is enabled and available everywhere (urban, rural, home, on the go)
2. Fast and reliable, always – in order to enable the quality and level of the services
3. Capacity – ensure the pipes and interfaces can handle high volume traffic
4. No surprises – changes in the pipes (topology, industry movements, regulations and more) can be negatively disruptive
5. Seamless – no matter what type of pipes are used, it should be unnoticeable to the interfaces

Chasm #3: Interfaces - People

1. Fun, fun, fun – that’s what the people want, and in order to attach them to the interfaces, it should be… fun.
2. Ease of use and availability for everyone
3. Richness of offering and usages
4. Fashion, coolness factor
5. Personalized
6. Reliable – no down time (improve battery capacity, charging time and charging methods)
7. Ease of productivity and content creation with simple interfaces
8. More interfaces!
9. Security – authentication, protection against identity theft, etc.

As mentioned before, the pipes and interfaces are only facilitators. They facilitate the usage of the services by the people. The people are the suppliers and customers, content producers and content consumers or just individuals communicating with each others in the digital world. Opportunities for innovation and new ventures rely not only on the Chasms, but also on the facilitated elements: the Service and People.

• Growth in existing markets – Next generation networks will be not only the infrastructures (pipes and interface) it will be a kind of harmonization between the services and the networks. At that time more or less we may see new kinds of services and networks, context-aware services and engines that will not only relate to e-commerce and content downloads but also to the day-to-day behavior of the person using the service.
• Growing the size of existing market – the better the health services, the longer the life span of the people. Same people will use the services for a longer time.
• Growth of new markets - Remember that two-thirds of the world population is not served at all, so while chasms are taken care of, more pipes are deployed etc, who knows which new digital services will follow to serve the needs of the new “People”?

I believe that many opportunities are hidden in the analysis above, some of which are being addressed already, while others are waiting for innovative venture and value creators to help and realize them.

I also believe that the “game” has even not begun. There is plenty of space for new services; new disruptions that will further drive digital growth in existing and new markets.

Looking forward to get your thoughts and comments.