Lots of noise all around on Apple's iPhone and to be fair, until I get my hands on one and experience it in the flesh and through a UK service provider; I can only wait in anticipation.
David Armano's post 'Introducing the myPhone' focused on what improvements he would make, like incorporating a slide-out Querty keyboard and a Blackberry-esque trackball.
My comment on his post was to focus on the Mass Customisation angle that I believed this spoke to. (not sure of blog etiquette so here is my comment in full:
Aha! Your myPhone, David could well be slightly different from my myPhone which I'm sure would be different again from my sister's myPhone.
What I'm excited about is Mass Customisation and that to me, is what 'myPhone' really talks to and, I believe, could be the next innovation around devices.
We've done it for cars, for houses, for Suits, for most PCs for ages; so why not cell phones?
Want a higher res camera? No problem. Trade the radio for a few more pre-loaded games? OK. A larger memory, certainly if you're willing to pay (I am). Want me to pre-load all your settings? Sure. Non-slip rubbery finish? Why not. Slide out 'real' keyboard like David Armano? You bet.
So yes, flippery apart, mass customised 'myPhones' would be a great - no more 'almost the perfect phone'.
Can't wait ;-)
Which seemed to get a thumbs up.
Now if we build a little further on this and consider the service / experience angle by looking at the key differences between a service and a product.
For a Product, Mass Customisation is a major undertaking requiring a new product strategy, tooling, and marketing. For success, especially financial you might be looking at starting from the ground up (like Mymeusli) or not making any money at all. I think the auto industry is an example of having provided a good degree of Mass Customisation from the early days. Lego is showing success with Lego Factory.
For a Service, the very fact that our experiences of the service are all individual and different, that our needs, inputs and outputs are all different, points to services having Mass Customisation at their very heart. It's absolutely not 'cookie cutter' or production line like a product. In fact the very best services pride themselves on being able to match individual needs. If you think about Air travel (a classic Service) each and every aspect is customisable, from routes, flight duration, booking, checkin, take off, cost, class, seat, meals etc. etc. again within certain limits (like the auto makers) and of course our individual experience (what we take away) will differ.
But what do you think?
Is product going in the direction of service and experience?