10 Ways iPads and Smart Phones Are Like the Ford Model T

By Joseph J. Serwach
Organik Consulting

What would you do if a freak electrical surge suddenly ruined the electronic infrastructure of your entire company? Imagine if such a surge fried every computer, your office phone system, your air conditioning and every appliance.

One of my closest friends owns a small Detroit-based manufacturing plant where the work – forging custom metal parts – has remained largely unchanged for half a century.

My friend’s metal-working machines remained in good working order after the meltdown so he’s rebuilding and restarting his business quickly thanks to the help of the new “Ford Model T of business:” smart phones and iPads.

Like the Model T, introduced in 1908, mobile tablets and smart phones are revolutionizing the work place as well as commuting and working from home with simple-to-understand, relatively cheap work tools that radically alter where you need to be to get work done. Consider:

1. Offices transformed. Most of the contents of my friend’s 1960-era “Mad Men” style office now transfer easily to his iPad including the contents of his file cabinets, his adding machine, payroll and credit card equipment and his computer.
2. Falling prices. The Model T changed everything because Model T’s were reliable, simple to understand and incredibly cheap with prices dropping each year. A basic iPad is $500, new iPad Minis go for a little more than $300 and used first generation (circa 2010 model) iPads can be found on eBay for $140.
3. Every home. Henry Ford’s goal with the Model T was a car in every garage just as Bill Gates had the goal of a computer in every home. The iPad is so cheap that we could easily imagine tablets in every room. A Grand Rapids restaurant, or example, uses iPads to replace menus that can be updated with every meal.
4. Spread wings. Before the Model T, Americans had to work short distances from home or on farms where they lived. Cars made us more mobile, able to go further. Mobile devices make us even more mobile: I’ve been with my friend in restaurants and in stores as well as boats in Florida when he’s been able to take calls, process orders and make things happen far from the office (whenever he takes a work call, I can check in with my office as well).
5. From frill to essential. The iPad, like the original automobiles, was seen as a fun but unnecessary “fun” luxury item for the privileged by many buyers – until people started using them for work and realized how essential they could be to spurring productivity.
6. Both inspire travel. My friend with the Detroit company now finds it much simpler to travel and own two homes since he can now handle work issues from anywhere. The Model T similarly expanded American travel.
7. Chains broken. Remember when land lines and fax machines chained you to staying at your desk? The lack of cars similarly kept people from venturing too far. Smart phones and tablets, like the Model T, have unchained people from the ties binding them to one place.
8. Dropping prices boost sales, create new markets. Dropping prices boosted sales and the introduction of a number of rival products.
9. Dropping prices boost innovative business ideas. Cheaper cars spurred numerous new markets (including two that have thrived in Michigan: an after market auto supplier industry after the Model T and the development of an “app” industry for tablets and smart phones.)
10. Universality. The Model T was dubbed “the Universal Car” because nearly every family was able to get a car in the years after they were introduced. It’s not hard to imagine the iPad becoming equally universal.

Joseph Serwach is Managing Director of Organik Consulting: a Michigan Digital Marketing & Communications firm in Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor and Traverse City.