Weather apps. There’s the classic weather app from iOS and Accuweather. I somehow got locked in to the latter one.
It’s software. And it’s service. I’m being serviced on finding out about the weather. Even though yesterday I was praising the simpler and cleaner Shazam over SoundHound, this time I’m on the
What I didn’t mention in yesterday’s piece of content is that even though Shazam, Apple’s new baby, was declared as a winner of a fight, SoundHound was still there to cater to some other users. The first one won by numbers but that’s not to say they buried SoundHound.
SH was there to serve more technical users. The difference wasn’t enormous — it wasn’t as if their experience was tailored to audiophiles so that they’d get extremely relevant information for them (I’m not an audiophile so I can’t shed some lingo but if I would
AccuWeather’s does though. For some reason, RealFeel and the more specific information on weather seem to cater to me more than Apple’s stock app. That being said, I do go from time to time to the easier app (Apple’s) when I don’t want to risk a headache from a more complicated interface.
So AccuWeather is there and going on strong. Not for everyone, that’s true — but because of their utilitarian edge, they happen to coexist. Being differentiated means catering to different users.
That’s how their field is “shared” or divided. In a sense, you could look at it and compare it to those martial arts in which one makes use of their opponent’s energy flow, leverages it and puts them down (I think it’s taekwondo?).
In the same way probably these two services, instead of going head-to-head in a costly fight for both parts, happen to coexist.
Back to us
This is just an example of how competition is handled in tech — there are many others. And here’s my nugget for today. If your company has got direct competition, all of the above makes sense.
If it hasn’t got, though, it means that it will, given that what you do is good. Good things are mimicked. This piece is meant to be as an example of how to go about it: energy flow leverage, as opposed to bloody fight.
About Ch Daniel
I run chagency, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. We’re building a credo around this belief.
I’ve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times – check it out at chdaniel.com/app
Illustration Credits: Effy Zhang (amazing illustrator, check her out!)
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