Home Security Purposes Of AT & T

The AT&T Corporation, formerly known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was created as a subsidiary of Alexander Graham Bell’s company, Bell Telephone (nytimes.com). AT&T was formed to handle the long-distance portion of the telephone company but has since branched out into other forms of technology (about.att.com). AT&T has always been innovative for their time, in 1927 they were the first to make a transatlantic phone radio which stretched from New York City to London (nytimes.com). AT&T has recently started expanding their company into other mediums, they bought out DirectTV in 2014, and launched their new product Digital Life in 2013 (about.att.com). Digital life is an application that connects to a smart security system that

This movement seems the obvious next step, since the company already covered large parts of the globe with Wi-Fi and cellphone coverage. The home security system latched onto the coverage they already had, and added some new technology to extend their reach into a larger market (AT&T’s Digital Life – Home Security & Automation Systems). The Digital Life technology is currently only being used for home security purposes, but sometime in the near future the company plans to extend it to the business and healthcare markets as well. Using Digital Life for business security is an easy step that would extend their reach even further. It may even encourage more sales of their current product, if customers are already using their product to protect their business they may decide to add coverage of their house as well. By branching out into the healthcare market, the company would also increase their consumer base. The caregivers of aging or physically ill people would be able to keep their loved ones safe while also decreasing the worry about the health of the people at home. This is stretching the range of customers now to people who not only worry about their home and pet’s security, but also aids in the care of the elderly

The products of Digital life and its competitors are differentiated which gives them the ability to control the price of their goods, to a degree. This product is aimed at higher middle-class and upper-class consumers, this means that if the price is raised too high then the company would lose their middle-class consumers. Comparatively with the prices of their competitors, they are price makers and not price takers. Even though all of the companies are offering a similar service of protecting houses from theft and damage, each company does this in a slightly different way, giving the consumer the choice of what they value. The main barriers that companies encounter, are barriers to exit. The service is offered on a subscription basis, and for the first two years of service are contractually binding (my-digitallife.att.com). This means that if the company tried to leave the market, there would be customers who had paid for services that they had not yet received. The first barrier to entry is the patents around the technological devices and applications, limiting the ability to enter the market. The second barrier of entry is the cost of the research and development needed to design the system and technology to create the system. These costs can be rather expensive, depending on how detailed the company wants their services. There are very few geographical limitations of the products, especially in