Cars go to the cloud - consumerization of everything

A piece in the Atlantic (h/t @katimz - thanks!) reminded us why consumerization is an unstoppable force and why it will have further impact beyond the I/T device space.

Consumerization (Wikipedia definition here) is usually defined as application of (or in some cases "reluctant but inevitable capitulation to") consumer information technologies in areas traditionally reserved for the enterprise. The fundamental force behind consumerization is the consumer market size, which creates an incredible level of scale, investment, innovation and fine-tuning for user acceptance, impossible to match in any other, narrower domain.

That's why Blackberry could never maintain its status as a "business-centric" device and compete with iPhones or Androids . That's why Enterprises ultimately lost the cloud battle (it's simply cheaper, simpler, and every user "gets it"). Yes - it had to be secure and reliable, but those were all consumer requirements as well, and ultimately it was the consumer scale that funded the development necessary to get to the level of performance at which purveyors of "enterprise-class" solutions simply lost the economic argument (see Google apps). Every employee is a consumer first (wasn't the case back when your first email came with your first job) - enterprises have to meet consumer-level user experience expectations, no matter what corporate I/T managers try to argue (see Apple).

We've been fans (and predictors of inevitability) of consumerization in I/T for many years. What is fun to watch now is the next chapter of consumerization: going beyond I/T, into areas of infrastructure, such as transportation and energy, as well as education and healthcare. We believe that the following, only slightly tongue-in-cheek law applies: 

Law of consumerization
If a consumer technology-based solution exists that is capable of fulfilling a market need, that solution is going to win. It will win because it is going to be cheaper, better and more user friendly due to scale and rapid, Darwinian evolution towards user acceptance .

What happens when you combine ubiquity and acceptance of mobile payment, apps, cloud data? It leads to a generational acceptance (and expectation!) of everything-as-a-service (EaaS?) and everything-as-an-App (EaaA?). When you combine smart phones with payment systems and GPS, throw in reliable, simple, inexpensive cars you get Zip-cars. Suddenly the answer to road congestion and seemingly intractable car-centricity of today's cities may not be the (unlikely) development of public transportation infrastructure, but a consumer technology-driven evolution of the existing infrastructure (roads) into something completely new. Take Zip-cars, make them electric and self-driving and the existing road infrastructure turns into something almost magical, with relatively little explicit infrastructure (road) investment! 

Consider the following (and maybe start a company or two - many people already have!):

• What happens when electric cars get applied to grid-level energy storage?
• What happens when mobile connectivity and advanced game sensors such as Kinnect get applied to medical diagnostics?
• What happens when the near-perfect tele-presence technology of video games gets applied to education?

What does this mean for investors and inventors?  If you think consumer technology doesn't apply to your domain you are probably wrong - you just need to figure out which one and how to leverage it.