Smart phones made news recently when RIM, the Canadian company that makes the Blackberry, hired a new CEO and RIM’s stock price promptly dropped. In The Harvard Business Review this month, James Citrin suggests this is actually a positive signal regarding the firm’s chances for future success. But the company needs to hurry as it is hemorrhaging market share. Worldwide, Blackberry’s smart phone market share dropped to 11% last year with Apple capturing 18% and Android 49%.
The figures are likely different within healthcare, but the healthcare industry does pay attention. Kaiser Permante announced last week the deployment of a Mobile app for Kaiser patients. Does anyone believe they randomly chose the Android platform for the first deployment? Apple is the next stop for Kaiser per their press release.
If Kaiser were targeting providers with their app instead of patients, would development still be focused on the Android? Does Smart Phone platform choice in the provider community mirror what we see in the consumer market? The numbers are not easy to come by, however in our experience, the Apple platform is more prevalent than the Android, with Blackberry a very distantthird.
Adding complexity to this conversation is the fact that cycle times for Mobile hardware are remarkably short, measured in months not years. What’s more, the FDA is flexing its muscle with the recent announcement that certain healthcare Mobile apps will require approval by this less-than-nimble government agency. This creates an interesting landscape from the perspective of healthcare technology vendors.
What’s the message for the nephrology community? Consider what RIM missed in the smart phone rodeo. RIM’s principal value proposition for Blackberry revolves around security. That’s actually a good thing, but where RIM missed the target was directing their message at corporations instead of end users. They chose a “push strategy” when a “pull strategy” would have served them better. John Hakalma and others have written about the emergence of BYOD (bring your own device) and how this growing trend is changing the perspective of CIOs across the country. RIM would do well to listen to the hoof beats before the stampede tramples them. In a similar vein, perhaps hospitals and dialysis facilities will support the wide array of Mobile devices the nephrology community brings into these important venues of care.
This week we have added a survey to the Acumen blog. Participating is a piece of cake. Simply make a choice by clicking the appropriate answer to the smart phone question and then clicking the “submit survey” button. The greater the participation in the survey the more informative the results should be. Thanks, as always, for being a part of the conversation.
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