Charles Lau dot Com

IPhone is supposed to be able to market to the mass since it can leverage heavily on its company name Apple. However, Steve Jobs seemed to have restricted it by having one exclusive telco company to deal with it. That opens up the curiosity of many people around the world to buy one from this company. It goes the same when it was announcing its exclusivity to Singtel, a Telco company in Singapore.

Apple Dominates One Hive Only
Obviously, IPhone can have the kind of market share like Nokia if Apple were to market it to all the three major Telco companies in Singapore. Though I may not know what they have discussed which arrived to this conclusion, it is nevertheless an exclusive right to Singtel. I believe in the eyes of Apple, they probably are not sure of how well they can penetrate into the Asia market if they were to work on this deal. Hence, they seem to have adopted the Seth Godin’s ideavirus by dominating one hive and become the very best in that hive first. And as time goes, it will start to spread to other hives to come along attracting to it.

Singaporean Companies are Crazy over Exclusivity
But in the eyes of most SIngapore companies, they always have the thought of having that exclusivity. That’s because having the exclusive rights, they thought they are going to dominate the market (which is probably right in one way or another). It is especially true when the market has already been educated of its existence and how it works. It may be true for IPhone since Apple has managed to bring the message across the world just by selling IPhone exclusively in one Telco only.. And Singtel is the lucky chap to get it… Another huge wealth is going to transfer to Singtel pretty soon…

A lot of trading companies out there have been trying to bring in OEM products which are not sold elsewhere and brand it out in the hope of becoming a famous brand. Never did they know that having that kind of product, it has to bring across an idea virus around that your product is really good and is found no other places. By putting those products in shelves around, trying to sell them for a profit just like that, I seriously think it is so naive… And it probably only works in 2 companies out of 10. That’s 80/20 rule here.

Why These Singaporean Companies Never Make It Big
If you seriously take a good look at the existing SME companies around Singapore, you will start to see that they have something which they are proud of. But it doesn’t seem to bring them to become millionaires.

Simple equation about making a profit out of your business

(Num of buyers) * (Num of repeating purchases) * (Average Price of Your Product) = Your Sales

That is to say that you not only lock into your existing customers to buy consistently, you also have to continue looking for new customers and even more products of higher values. If not, the only way is to mark up or mark down your price according to your demand/supply.

If You Can’t Win Your Competitors, Join Them!
There is something called joint ventures with your competitors where you can both upsell one another’s products for a referral fee or on an exchange of database. That is to say that it is not about having the exclusive rights to sell it by yourself. You will start to have different sources of income from your same product. What’s the big deal about fighting over each other’s products, price and services?

Apple Is Adopting A Strategy Which Is Very Simple, Yet Profound
By giving only one hive (which must have substantial income potentially), you will start to get the virus that “Hey IPhone is coming! And it’s coming to Singtel only… My M1 subscription don’t enjoy it…” That’s when the curiosity kills the cat and creates a Win-Win situation of bringing in more customers for Singtel as well as Apple.

If Apple were to implement it to all Telcos (Singtel, M1 and Starhub), they may look like one of the many phones out there… Though they are unique product by itself, there are way so many unique products out there already. There’s almost nothing to talk about IPhone except for its unique touch screen and phone features. IPhone’s sales may not be as good in the end. That actually means that by dominating this huge hive only, you get to become the BEST in that hive… Probably there will become a higher percentage of Singtel subscribers using IPhone in the end… But it is definitely not for me yet because I like my Nokia N95 and I am one who wants to fully utilize my phone to the max that I can over the time and durability…

I have a wish…
I have a little wish that Apple IPhone will be able to communicate to Singaporeans out there… It seems to me that mobile phones today are commonly used for phone calling, sms, camera and using the Internet. This recently, I was hooked to buy applications from Handango to enhance my phone usage to the max that I know of. It has been used up to the extent that people might be thinking I am sending SMS, which I am not… I am doing brainstorming of my ideas with my Projekt which I have bought recently and I am really proud of having this software!