market-research, android-developmentSo I’ve recently purchased an Android Wear and have been getting used to a lot of the features and downloading some of the application available on the app store. One thing that I have noticed is that at the moment, there is a very limited number of apps available for the Android Wear. There doesn’t seem to been too much competition but I’m not sure if this is due to the product not taking off yet or if there is a genuine opening in the market.
I’ve done some work which Android Mobile Application Development so it shouldn’t be too much of a task to start creating Android Wear apps.
I’ve heard of companies and products failing because they jumped on the band wagon too early or too late and I’m very new to this whole “Startup” idea.
What I would like some advise on is;
1) Would it be a good decision for me to enter into a brand new market. Is it better to begin with a market that is more established for a first time start up? What are the positive and negatives?
2) Are there any particular sites or resources of information that can give advise on which markets are currently increasing or declining?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Wearable computing is going to be a big market eventually. However, it may not be in the same form which are seeing right now like watches/eye glasses etc. With that in consideration if you have a killer application for the Android Wear, something that is not possible to do as well without the device then you have a greater chance of success. For your other questions:
1) Ideally you want to one of the early companies to be in a market that will potentially be really big. It is better not to be the first one in since the market is too nascent to figure out its real size. That said to enter a established market you will have lot of competition. Good companies define new markets, things people thought were not even needed or possible. So if you have a killer app for wearable device that would be a great candidate for a whole near market segment.
2) There are several market research companies that provide this kind of data. You search for them and get an idea of the overall direction of the market. e.g. for wearable technology Gartner published a report here.
1) I can not say which one is better, new or existing market.
Existing Market
An existing market is just like it sounds — it has customers, competitors, there are products serving the market and you can measure the size of the opportunity (number of current customers, total revenue, growth rate, etc.) You win in an existing market when you are better or faster on metrics that customers have told you are the basis of competition. You use a Customer Development process to get out the building and talk to existing customers of incumbents’ products.
They will tell you:
– what the basis of competition is (speed, convenience, performance, price, etc.) – how satisfied they are with the current incumbents – what it would take to get their business
You gauge demand in an existing market by whether customers have told you that they will switch, the cost they have told you it will take to acquire them and the amount of capital you can spend to do so.
Positives:
Negatives:
New Market
A new market is just like it sounds — it has no customers, no competitors, there are no products currently serving the market and you cannot measure the size of the opportunity. (There’s no way to measure the number of current customers, total revenue, growth rate, etc.) Most importantly for startups in a new market: Getting out of the building and asking customers what they want is futile. You’re the visionary, not them. But this doesn’t mean you get to sit inside your building and spend years building your product without talking to people. What you ask them is just radically different than in an existing or resegemented market. Getting out of the building and talking to future customers is essential. Your goal is to understand:
– the day in the life of the customer today – the day in the life of the customer after your product arrives – what other changes need to happen (cultural, buying habitats, technology shifts, economic, etc.) to make your business succeed
Would it be a good decision for me to enter into a brand new market. Is it better to begin with a market that is more established for a first time start up? What are the positive and negatives?
Positives:
Negatives:
2) I advise you use Google Trends. Pick your keywords wisely and see how much it has been searched according to dates. Don't enter a market where the search growth curve has reached the top. Try to find markets that are on the rise. Sometimes short peaks happen because of media, ignore those.
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