A smart student pointed out that my sixth mantra of the Success Model holds good – the six diverse payment services are in fact diluting each other’s focus. Another student added “isn’t a simple user being overwhelmed with technology”. Well both of them were right.

Again with the same class I took up PDAs for discussion. The common voice from most students was that it is positioned on too many services, with each struggling for visibility. In our research on what is the principal application of a PDA, we were told about five different applications. The key application, which is in fact a message pad, was not one of them. I wondered how well established consumer electronic giants from Japan, Korea, Europe and America could go so wrong – not positioning PDAs on its principal application but trying to sell on a proposition, which is unclear and intangible. I call this value dilution -   a convergence syndrome.

The technology hardware companies rightly or wrongly have an obsession of overwhelming people with technology, overlooking the fact that more than eighty percent of the population in any market is either technology conservative or technology averse. The technology service providers are no different and take fancy in overwhelming their users with technology. The technology companies may be able to excite people into buying their technology but integrating that into their lives is a different story.

In one of my recent Q&A sessions with www.imodestrategy.com, I questioned the convergent business model of i-mode and attributed this as the key factor for the limited ARPU generated from the data services. My position for similar offerings including Vodafone live is that the convergence of diverse services dilutes the focus on each service, thus leaving it to struggle. Since, a technology enabled service requires an extremely high value proposition to overcome a high notional threshold, a strong focus is critical. 

MP3 and iPod are excellent examples of what focus can do. The application dedicated devices help to build up focus - offering pointed solutions and significant value build up through the synergy of application and hardware. I would also like to take this opportunity to address a myth that people do not like to carry more than one device. People already carry one or more of the following, when they step out of their homes: wrist watch, reading glasses, sun glasses, wallet, bag, umbrella, water bottle, cosmetic kit, keys, fountain pen, ball point pen, Discman, Walkman, MP3 or an iPod, mobile phone, PDA etc.

PC, home cable and three-in-one stereo are some every day convergent solutions, which stand out as successful but interestingly, have had very different dynamics. The PC has evolved into a convergent platform, since its introduction in the 1980s. However, when a certain application on a PC becomes critical to business or lifestyle, there is a tendency to dedicate it to a separate PC. At home, there is also the growing tendency to have a separate PC for the children. Again on the home front, each service in a home cable is usually an established offering on a different platform before being included in the convergent home cable suite.

A little known service on a home cable often struggles unless a special focus is brought on to it. Its chances of survival significantly improve, if it is included into a relevant focus group like entertainment, news, cartoons, etc. We buy three-in-one stereo for our homes for it is good value for money but end up mainly using only the CD/DVD functions during its lifecycle. Well that is the dynamics of convergence.

It is important for all those associated with mobile voice to realize that anything bundled with it is likely to struggle through out its lifecycle unless a very special focus is brought on to it. SMS has survived and prospered on a mobile phone because it first established its value proposition on a separate platform i.e. pager, before it was migrated to a mobile phone. If text messaging had been directly introduced on to the mobile phone, it would have struggled. SMS-like voice delivers a personal message. The fact that it is personal – makes it a killer. Both the application as well as text content also synergize with a mobile phone, enhancing their respective values. No wonder SMS is prospering as a secondary application.
 
Email again delivers a personal message and once again is an established service, this time on the Internet, before being offered on smart phones. It co-exists with voice on smart phones but this service is not exactly prospering.  It is in fact surviving on them for the lack of synergy between the hardware and application (Mantra 2 of the Success Model). If email was introduced on a mobile phone, before it got established on the Internet, it would have literally struggled all the way through.

The usual challenge to technology hardware companies is to differentiate their products. In trying to achieve this, they often resort to gimmicks like convergence. The service providers like mobile operators also become partners to these gimmicks to increase their uptake. The gullible users are often the victims, who get carried by the newer convergent devices. The winners are the technology hardware companies and not the service providers as the former are able to sell their technology gadgets, however, the service providers land up achieving very little - convergence drives very little extra traffic – adding very little to ARPU (Average Revenue Per Unit).

Convergence excites for it is able to offer high end features to a common man at very little extra cost – thanks to the advancements in microprocessor technology. It also excites masses to invest on it, little realizing that they will hardly use the secondary features during their lifecycles. Convergence is in fact a cherished dream of engineers to achieve optimum resource utilization and my experience also tells me that pushing the convergence of diverse applications is counter productive.

Convergence is an interesting conflict between a desire and psyche. The heart wants it but the mental faculties refuse to use it. How to solve this conflict? Maybe if the technology service providers design a service that the users finally get to use.