Tuesday, January 29, 2008

bCODE mobile ticketing

Text messages are gaining in popularity at an uncontrollable pace and are accountable for an important part of the cell phone industry. Having established a footprint as a major trend in consumer cell phone usage, SMS text messaging has statistically increased monthly cell phone bills. While you are in class and you want to ask your friend if she brought the tickets for tonight's big concert, “texting” is definitely the best way of doing it. However, what do you do when she responds that she has lost them? This problem would never occur with bCODE mobile ticketing technology.

An Australian company took advantage of the SMS text messaging growth to create a technology where SMS text messages would be used to replace things such as vouchers, airline tickets, membership cards, etc. bCODE is compatible with 99% of devices already existing such as the RIM Blackberry and even the Apple iPod. It does not require you to register or subscribe since it comes as an SMS and will not cost you more than a regular text message. The concept is safe, simple and convenient for both consumers and organizations. When you purchase a concert ticket for example, instead of having it delivered to you, the administration of the event simply sends you a SMS text message with the bCODE scripted in it. When the day of the concert arrives, you don’t have to worry about bringing the ticket nor waiting in line because that link will give you direct access. All you need to do is pass your phone through a Media Hub, which is the scanning device that will read the bCODE scripted in your SMS text message, and the bCODE will either serve as the ticket itself or will automatically print one for you.

Porter’s Forces Analysis

Threat of Substitutes

Until now, the only substitute to the bCODE mobile ticketing technology would be the physical way of ticketing. The elderly and some others are scared of technological change and will probably continue using the normal distribution channels. They will rather want to have tickets mailed because they rely more on human interventions than on technology. However, young adults and all the generations under will definitely take advantage of bCODE. With the technology growing; people are becoming more and more at ease and dependent of it. Very often, people will take whatever option that will make them save time, and technology such as bCODE is both quicker and simpler. Other than getting physical tickets, until now there exists nothing really that could substitute the bCODE mobile ticketing.


Rivalry

The market for the bCODE can only get bigger and bigger. It is still not well-known, but there are numerous advantages of using it and with the technology taking over a lot of things; it is only a matter of time before it obtains a big share of the market. bCODE forecasts that its technology will soon be adopted by many industries and since it is the first one in the market, unless big names come in with a similar technology, bCODE brand name will be associated with the technology, making it harder for new comers to compete. Moreover, since it is a market where little competition exists, they will all probably divide up big shares of the market. Thus, the rivalry for the bCODE mobile ticketing technology is categorized as low. There are other similar types of scanning devices that exist, for example, in stores, the machine used to scan your clothes is in a way the same concept as bCODE technology, however, none of them are as available to customers as bCODE is.

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Microsoft Surface

Touch-screen technology is becoming more and more popular in many industries. People have familiarized themselves very quickly, and it appears that the demand for touch-screen technology products is increasing. Microsoft has recently released their newest and hottest product on the market; the Microsoft Surface, a product that definitely pushes further the technology in its rising slope.

This 30-inch digital display table does not require a mouse or keyboard in order to operate it. This interactive surface comes to life with a simple touch. Instead of people adapting to technology, this time it is technology adapting itself to people. With its ability of multi-touch, this coffee-shaped interface enables you to create, look at photos, share information, and much more. Designed to use collectively and to improve organization, it will make you discover a new way of interacting with data; it does not only react to the finger touch, but also to many objects. For example, if you put your wireless camera on the screen, it will show you the pictures you took, and from there, you can play with them as much as you want. It goes even as far as putting your credit cards on the table and being able to drag and share your bills. No more need to transfer files or any information into the device, it does it all automatically. The tabletop screen is run by a version of Windows Vista™ and the Bluetooth technology used enables the objects that you put on the screen to communicate with the Microsoft Surface, which then loads the data on the screen.
Porter's Forces Analysis

Rivalry

Microsoft Surface appears to be the only one of its kind, thus facing very little rivalry, not to say any at all. However, in the probably near future, companies like Apple who are becoming bigger on touch-screen technologies might decide to come up with similar products. Since the brand identification tends to constrain rivalry, Microsoft Surface will surely keep a big share of the market even though Apple and others would come in. Small companies that would come up with surface computing technology would have difficulties to survive since they would be competing with big names in the industry of technology. Therefore, it is very unlikely that small and unknown businesses will join the market. Consequently, since there are a small number of firms in the market, big companies will remain with big shares of it, making the rivalry low for Microsoft Surface products-like.


Buyer Power

So far, the impact that buyers have on the Microsoft Surface is weak. Since it is the first surface computing product on the market accessible to customers, it allows Microsoft to set its price without worrying about competition or any outside threats. Therefore, being unique, the customers cannot switch to another product. Moroever, since a big part of the revenue making of companies is due to hardware and software uses, Microsoft sees the market for surface computing tremendous. Thus, given that buyers are numerous, none of them can actually have an influence on neither the product nor its price. Some of the first companies to use Surface are in the entertainment, hotel and retail industries.

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