Phil Simon: The Age of the Platform

Phil Simon is a recognized technology expert, dynamic speaker for hire, independent consultant, and surprisingly hip writer with four books under his belt.

His new book: The Age of the Platform

DEFINING THE PLATFORM

Over the last five to seven years, four companies have ascended to absolutely astounding heights. They are Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. Yes, these companies excel via their superior use of technology. They have built incredible ecosystems. They’ve embraced partnerships and external innovation.

Beyond all of this, The Gang of Four has embraced an entirely new way of doing business: the platform.

A platform is simply a set of integrated planks. The most powerful platforms today have two things in common:

♦ They are rooted in equally powerful technologies—and their intelligent usage. In other words, they differ from traditional platforms in that they are not predicated on physical assets, land, and natural resources.

♦ They benefit tremendously from vibrant ecosystems (read: partners, developers, users, customers, and communities).

While platforms inhere a great deal of potential commercial appeal and applications, they do not exist simply as a means for companies to hawk their wares. At their core, platforms today are primarily about consumer utility and communications. Finally, because consumer tastes change much faster than business’ tastes, platforms today must adapt very quickly—or face obsolescence.

http://philsimonsystems.com/