The value chain and the customer relationship will increasingly be dominated by a new kind of entity, called the SMART player – an acronym that stands for Services, Management, Applications, Relationships and Technology, and reflects the way in which these players take responsibility for the end-to-end customer experience.
This role builds on, but radically extends, the way in which some device vendors such as Apple and Google began to provide a managed experience on the basis of Internet and cloud-based services.
