Global CIO: The Awesome Transformative Power Of The Apple iPad

"Stocks are used to communicate complex ideas about the future in their price action of the present," Schwarz writes in a blog post called Netflix Works With Apple To Become Top App Stock.

"The mistake that so many investors make is that they expect a stock to be priced based on past events or current data. It would be an easy profession if that were the case.

"So what current stock ticker is representative of a sociological cycle bigger than itself? That would be Netflix, or NFLX. Mobile users crave individually tailored apps in contrast to inefficient websites in the same way consumers preferred the convenience of fast food as opposed to Mom’s home cooked meal. Investment capital is flowing into this revolutionary space (emphasis added).

"Netflix began the year as a $55 stock and has surged to $145 as investors recognize its symbolic stature as the first profitable app play on Wall Street. The first day we opened up the iPad we downloaded the Netflix app, paid the $8.99 subscription fee, and were blown away as we watched instant movies on the device. Users want to pay for the service no matter if they’re using Xbox, PS3, Blu-ray, Wii, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV or whatever other iplatform you like. Netflix is just scratching the surface with expanded content deals and international rollouts."

The other day I wrote that SAP CIO Oliver Bussmann plans to equip17,000 SAP employees with iPads over the next 12 months, and I assure you his primary intent was not to have them spend all their time tuning into Netflix.

Rather, at SAP, the iPad is performing a similarly transformative magic trick as it is for customers of Netflix: unlocking their desire to see the world and its possibilities in the ways that those employees and customers want to see them, rather than just in the way that a device's limitations allow.

By letting its employees and then its customers see the power of SAP's applications through the rich and user-controlled interface of the iPad, SAP lets those people perceive not just an mess of statistics but rather a set of possibilities over which the user—employee or customer—has some control.

It let's them apply not just expertise and raw computing power to information, but imagination and whimsy and innovative analysis that with other types of devices could not be expressed.

Here's Schwarz again on the power of the Apple-Netflix model, and as you read this, take "Netflix" out of the story and insert your own company's name in there: how can your company use the iPad in unprecedented ways to greatly enhance the way your customers experience the products or services you offer?

"This is the first must-have app and it has become a must-own stock as a result. CEO Reed Hastings is doing such a great job that Steve Jobs abandoned any plan to compete against them and decided to welcome the Netflix app into the gated Apple ecosystem with a prime spot on Apple TV. Hastings has proven to be the man who can bridge the licensing gap from TV/DVD’s to streaming. He is a major player in the push toward Web TV. As long as the Netflix app can continue to progress its cooperative/profitable relationships across diverse platforms, the sociological symbolism of the NFLX allocation will be the primary driver of its stock price action, p/e ratio will be secondary. I know that causes the book smarts inside of you to cringe, but it's an important realization if you want to make money on the new Wall Street."

Forget the part of the last sentence about investing and substitute "if you want to make IT's contributions to your business even more valuable and high-impact." Yes, this is a little weird, and it's definitely well outside the traditional sense of IT as infrastructure stuff that's measured in terms of efficiency and reliability and dependability and manageability and interoperability.

Because the iPad has offered a whole new "-ity" to the CIO conversation: possibility.

That's what CIOs are going to be measured on: seizing and embracing and unlocking new possibilities for their companies. New ways of engaging with customers, new ways of presenting ideas, new ways of expressing value, and new ways of driving competitive advantage.

New possibilities.

Maybe you'll say, "There's no room for that in my business." Maybe you'll say "This isn't IT; this is a lot of mushy drivel." And maybe it is.

Or maybe your competitors are looking at ways to use the iPad to expand the possibilities of what their employees can do, and even more important, to expand the possibilities of what their customers will pay them for.

And I'll bet Blockbuster wishes it had just one more chance to compete with Netflix.

RECOMMENDED READING Global CIO: An Open Letter To Apple CEO Steve Jobs Global CIO: Is Steve Jobs Blowing Smoke About Apple TV? Global CIO: Cutting Google And Apple Down To Size Global CIO: IBM And Oracle Expose Hewlett-Packard's Achilles' Heel Global CIO: In Hurd's Wake, An Ugly Ending For Oracle's Charles Phillips Global CIO: Larry Ellison Looms Large Over Put-Down Of Oracle President Global CIO: Resurrecting Mark Hurd: Larry Ellison's War With IBM Global CIO: Larry Ellison And Mark Hurd: The Job Interview Global CIO: Burying Mark Hurd: Hewlett-Packard And Its Future Global CIO: Larry Ellison's Acquisition List: Who's #1? Bob Evans is senior VP and director of InformationWeek's Global CIO unit.

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