Supernatural Agency: Online business tales

According to AppleInsider, Apple has filed patents for a comprehensive lifestyle management system that integrates software, sensors that monitor exercise activity and a user’s iPod or iPhone. The system would survey the user on a wide range of lifestyle data and create health and workout profiles that match the user’s goals. It would then use the portable device to cue the various workout routines and physical sensors would ‘tell’ the device how the user was responding to the workout.

The interesting thing about this is the way it integrates their software and hardware into their users’ lives. It is a natural extension of the current iPod/iPhone model where these devices become indispensable  to the user. As the tobacco and alcohol companies know, addiction is a very effective marketing tool. While I do not in any way want to imply any similarity between Apple and those companies, they do recognize the power of creating products that once a user gets used to having them, they become a necessary part of their life. This is ecosystem marketing- once you are hooked into the ecosystem of their products and services, you’re there for life and will continue to buy improvements and new services that work within that ecosystem.