CRM 2.0 is going to be the most profitable concept for pioneering companies, like, for example Apple Inc.

You know that idea of getting customers help to design your product....

Apple Inc. is going to be the guinea pig and already it looks like its an amazingly brilliant and profitable idea.


Well with the "iPhone" annnounced by Steve Jobs this week, over the next 6 months, you are going to watch the first customer-designed product that is created by millions of people, 1000's of experts, 100's of pundits and dozens and dozens of journalists from around the world in specialized fields. And Apple will get all of this market research, feedback, good, bad, well thought out, ill thought out, whatever...... FOR FREE, before they have invested in manufacturing set up, committed to final features, etc etc. Imagine the free PR, marketing, intensity of anticipation, the backlog of excitement..... PRICELESS!

Just take a look at this blog about the iPhone....

The Apple iPhone debate by ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes -- The blogosphere's went wild with opinion, comments and fears about Apple's iPhone, but a lot of it was ill thought-out. In this post I aim to take a more objective look at the iPhone.

And just in case it isn't enough, look at Steve Job's strategic use of controversy:

Hey, have you heard? Cisco's decided to sue Apple over the use of the name iPhone

The settlement is going to be less than what they'd have had to spend to get equivalent advertising....at this rate, they are going to get the noun iPhone right smack into a listing in both Websters and the Oxford English Dictionary before the end of the 2008

And they both win:
The Cisco and Apple names keep front and center in the press for as long as the controversy keeps going.

Have you thought about how you and your organization are going to develop your CRM 2.0 skills?


It's a whole new world out there!