Marconi's business model with wireless radio: one of the first tech innovations and its impact on travel and transportation

1. Service-like SaaS based usage model: a ship or shore station could not purchase the wireless hardware. Customer had to sign up for the service that included the hardware, operator, and a shared royalty on commercial messages sent through the set (10% royalty) or annual payment. Marconi Company was selling the right to use system, and never physical device.

2. Disproportionate economic advantage over existing (much like cloud over on-premise hardware): cost of laying a trans-atlantic cable was $4M, a Marconi station capable of transmitting across was $60,000.

Italy and Britain (ships and military) were the first to adopt. US military went it alone because they wanted to own the hardware and didn't like the service model that prevented owning of the wireless set

3. The first use of App and hackers was also in the wireless world: hackers were able to build primitive wireless sets that could communicate with nearby ships radio. These hackers were operating as individuals (sometimes illegally because operating any kind of wireless required a license) and were using Apps. Apps being the 'apparatus' they built.

4. It was also the first tech monopoly to be broken: while there were other wireless systems, Marconi's was dominant and the company claimed incorrectly that a Marconi wireless could ONLY communicate with another wireless system from Marconi. This was not true as laws of Hertzian waves that governed the transmission messages were not tied to Marconi specific devices.

The First International Radio Telegraph conference in Berlin in 1903 was convened to organize a way to regulate wireless radio and imposed new conditions on the company.

5. And if you are a trivia fan: the reason there were any survivors off the Titanic was because both the Titanic and the rescue ship Carpathia were equipped with Marconi radios and operators. Radios had just been added to the bigger ships the year before. Carpathia's operator was about to turn in for the night when he got the signal. Another ship, the California was much closer to the Titanic also had a similar radio but the operator had already gone to sleep. After the accident, all ships above a certain size were required to carry a radio and for a first step to making made travel safer.