Re: IOM as Gorilla
The key insight I got from the book is that gorillas do not exist in isolation but rather head a "value chain" of many companies which have adopted and actively cultivate the gorilla's pasture. When looking for gorillas, look first to see if you can find a value chain. This will automatically rule out high flyers that some folks will tout as gorillas but which are really solo acts. A company like MSFT (the ultimate gorilla) is where it is because there are literally thousands of other companies out there who labor every day to promote MSFT's welfare. That's gorilla power.
In IOM's case there are several value chains to consider. The first surrounds Zip and Jaz, but their value chain is still somewhat tenuous and confined to the multimedia production niche. This is a very important niche but it isn't the sort of true mass-market that leads to gorilladom. Still, several companies have begun using Zip as key components of their products such as INFS with its Zip-based projector systems and CSCO with their Zip-based web server appliances.
Obviously if Zip is crowned the floppy successor and all PC OEMs fall in line than this would represent the sort of mass-market the book talks about but we're too early to tell yet whether that will happen (though certainly Zip is the leading contender for the crown at this point).
The real gorilla potential for IOM, however, is the Clik! drive. The digital photography market is certain to grow into exactly the sort of mass-market phenomenon the book refers to over the next decade. If Clik! is adopted by Kodak and several other digital camera vendors later this year when Clik!-enabled products start to appear then we'll be under a full-fledged tornado warning. The first storm clouds have already appeard with the November 13th Clik! endorsements by Kodak, HP, Hitachi, Microsoft, DEC, Citizen, Motorola, Matsushita, Texas Instruments (see iomega.com for details) and have intensified with the March 23rd Citizen OEM announcement (see iomega.com for details). Reread the November announcement carefully and see if you can detect a gorilla-style "value chain" in the making.
One important factor to stress with gorillas is that the sort of dominance the book refers to does not appear overnight. The problem IOM has had recently is overzealous early supporters who expected it to take over the world by next Tuesday. Gorillas are long-term providers for their holders, not overnight sensations. A good perspective to keep when hunting for them. |
