‘Digital device penetration has just begun’ – Roger Whittle

I’ve been in this industry a long (pre-blogging) time, so I was interested to come across this interview with Apple/tech distributor, Roger Whittle, founder and CEO of Jigsaw24. He speaks extensively on how he sees the future in tech and the many different challenges and opportunities he expects to see on the road ahead.

We’re only at the beginning of the dance

Whittle admits that Apple’s Steve Jobs was an inspiration. He always wanted to launch an Apple distribution company, which he managed to do when he set Jigsaw24 up in 1992.

But what’s really interesting is what he sees coming next. For one thing, he doesn’t believe we’ve yet hit any kind of maximum when it comes to digital device penetration. “Digital device penetration has just started and it’s going to continue,” he said.

We know Apple is about to enter the AR space with its own wearable solution, so it was reassuring to learn how Whittle sees things like this used.

Speaking to CRN, he speculated that a gantry worker building something in five years’ time will be gloved up and wearing AR glasses to guide them safely through their work.

The green evolution

But the bigger zoomed out picture is about what the big drivers for business innovation will be in the coming decades, and Whittle seems convinced that it’s the environment that matters, saying:

“The next wave is sustainability, the environment, and climate management. I think its batteries energy storage – it will be somewhere on the eco side because that is the next wave that will dominate our lives.”

Green machines

I think he’s right about that, and as the many varied forces who want to deny the critical need for environmental action are shunted aside, those opportunities should surely only grow.

“I think there will be a myriad of opportunities that we haven’t thought of,” Whittle said. “Just as we had not considered capex versus opex ten years ago.”

Inspired by Steve

He also admitted to being super-inspired by Steve Jobs, quoting a set of typical Jobs-inspired epithets, he talked about not being afraid of counter cyclical investment, of keeping it simple, being direct and taking a long-term view.

He did say that contrary to Jobs’ feeling that you shouldn’t spend too long on market research, “I think you should listen to your customers,” but added his take, which is that you “should have the courage of your convictions.”

I found these insights interesting and suspect they represent a wider body of opinion across the Apple-related ecosystem. I thought other people may be interested in this, too.

Read the original (and watch the video) here.

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