Responding to Convergence
By: Mike Rock

Convergence is creating new businesses and forcing existing businesses to adapt quickly or die. We are seeing the convergence of telecommunications, IT & media; the convergence of fixed & mobile services and convergence at device level. All of these trends are creating new markets and making other equipment, products, services and even whole companies rapidly obsolete. For technology manufacturers or service providers, deciding which markets to base your future on becomes a challenge with serious consequences. Should BT or AT&T provide home TV services to replace their declining telephony revenue? Should Kodak integrate a mobile phone into its cameras or just give up?

Does Microsoft still need to sell boxed software when you can download applications onto a smartphone?
Does everyone have to have mobile offerings or have no future? When the communication of voice is just another software application what do equipment manufactures like Nortel or Alcatel do? Google just does search, right?

Collisions within the telecoms, IT and media sectors are occurring now on a daily basis. Like any busy crossroads, there are going to be near misses and head-on crashes. As ever, the survivors will be the companies that understand their customers, and are agile enough to quickly respond to all this change.