Aerospace eBusiness

Apple buying Twitter: time to wake-up the Aerospace industry? May 5, 2009

If you have simply dismissed the Twitter phenomenon to simply another “craze”, you might need to wake up and smell the money. This morning a rumor is spreading around the world: “Could Apple buy Twitter?” This $700M acquisition would accelerate the tsunami size change that is happening to the business world.

Integrating Twitter with the Apple platforms such as iTune and iPhone will create huge revenue dynamics for the hardware manufacturer. In addition, it could integrate a Twitter API into version 3.0 of the iPhone SDK, thus creating an explosion of new mobile applications. With the DoD speaking recently about the use of iPhones in the military, this news lands smack in the middle of our industry like a major “WAKE UP” grenade!

In the aerospace world, only media and airlines have jumped into the Twitter fray so far. Major Aerospace and Defense news outfits such as Aviation Week and Flight International and some of their best contributors (e.g. Benet Wilson) are very active. But as with many Internet based applications, the B2C world seems to be engaged first. Airlines are racing to help customersby creating new support models every day. Not surprisingly, JetBlue and SWA were engaged first, but now everyone is jumping on the social media universe (United joined last week).

However, the fundamental shift is much more profound. Traditional ways of communicating with customers, suppliers, partners, and recruits are completely changing. And it is changing fast! Today, people want to collaborate and discuss. They want to query and discover. They no longer want to be talked at, sold to, dictated, or instructed. They can filter a company attempts to use traditional methods of communication completely out. Traditional mail, fax, and even emails are now very ineffective in reaching people outside (and inside) your company.

The Aerospace Industry as a whole (and particularly in the USA) needs to SHIFT to a more engaged and interactive model if it wants to attract the next generation of employees to collaborate on all the innovative projects the customers are demanding. The same way that traditional companies have lost market share to new businesses embracing the Internet in Information Technology (Linux), News (Google), Music (iTunes), and Automotive (Swatch, Tata), I can see a day very soon when brand new Aerospace and Defense companies spring up from the collective ideas contributed globally to blogs and tweets out on the Internet.