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| How does an honest guy make an e-buck? |
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| Talk,
Graham Bower,
04 January 1999 | |
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At his MacWorld keynote speech last month, Steve Jobs took time out from launching the multi-coloured toilet seat that is the new Apple iBook to extoll the virtues of an upgrade to the Macintosh search engine 'Sherlock'. This may at first sound like an uninspiring product announcement, but Apple have such high hope for Sherlock that they are making it the centerpiece of their internet strategy.
Sherlock began life as a 'Find File' command helping Macintosh users navigate their way around their computer's hierarchical filing system. Over time, it has evolved into a new kind of internet tool, enabling users to perform searches simultaneously across a number of commercial search engines without so much as launching a web browser. With the advent of Sherlock 2, Apple is extending Sherlock to enable users to perform searches for online shopping. The user specifies the product they are looking for, and the results can be listed by a number of different criteria, including price.
This new technology must be alarming to web businesses who could see their wafer-thin margins disappear altogether as they compete to make it to the top of the search result list. Similar search engines are already in development for PC, and a new breed of 'infomediary' web sites are being developed to muscle in on the comparative shopping party.
This new order of absolute price transparency begs the question of how an honest e-business is supposed to earn an honest buck. In such a comoditised market, there are only two ways you can go - compete on price, or find some way to add value. It will be hard to find ways to add value to the online purchasing experience if consumers are making their purchasing decisions via search engines rather than visiting your site. And how ever much you are willing to par down your margins, there is always someone willing to knock off a few more bucks in order to make the sale.
The answer, perhaps will be to go the way in which Apple themselves have gone over the past year, and Think Different. Rather than rolling up their sleeves and entering into the PC price war with the big guys, Apple have chosen instead to develop products and a marketing strategy that set themselves apart from the competition. Thanks to industrial design, PR & advertising, iMac has become as much a lifestyle choice as a PC. The iMac's success has demonstrated that a substantial number of people are prepared to pay a premium for the caché that the iMac brand offers.
Isn't it is ironic that a company that sets such store in differentiating themselves from the competition should develop the ultimate method of comparative shopping.
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