What did I just say?

Don’t worry, I didn’t lose my mind or go crazy. I continue to believe that the best way to be a market leader is to chart your own course. But sometimes a successful course does not follow traditional thinking.

Here’s a great example of a company that does just that. Vizio is well known to all of us. They produce those fabulous flat screen televisions that made high quality viewing affordable for many of us. We can thank Vizio’s “follow” strategy for flat-panel prices falling.

Vizio’s strategy is simple. To provide innovative, high-quality products that are affordable to the masses. That’s exactly what they did with televisions. They allowed other vendors to create and define the market (and spend that money on marketing), and then entered the market with high-quality, feature-packed TVs at a drastically reduced price. And that strategy worked. Vizio reported $2.5 billion in revenue in 2009, up from $142 million in 2005. Today, it’s the number one provider of flat-panel TVs, with just 300 employees. Yes, you read it right.

This week, Vizio announces its new smartphone and tablet. They have once again let others create the market and are now stepping in with innovative and well priced products. And this time they have an even bigger advantage: a loyal set of retailers and all those happy customers who bought their TVs.

The key to Vizio’s innovation is using the Internet to connect Visio TVs, tablets and phones as an integrated set of devices. Check out these ideas:

• Usage consistency. Taking Apple’s playbook as an example, users will access the new tablet and phone in exactly the same way they access their televisions.
• Seamless integration. Both the tablet and the phone have HDMI, so you can display videos you record or collect on a larger TV screen. The phone and tablet may be used as remote controls for other consumer electronic devices, including all Vizio products.
• uninterrupted service All Viso product devices come with access to Vizio’s Via Plus Internet service. That gives users seamless access to Visio’s partner services, including Netflix, Facebook and Twitter downloads, as well as the Android app platform.
• View on request. Now we’re really getting into some innovation. Imagine starting a movie, game, or whatever on your TV, then switching to your tablet or phone and taking it on the road (or to bed) to finish. That’s what you get and – and I guarantee there will be more to come from this service!

Vizio is a smart tracker. They sit and learn from their competitors and their markets. then they create products that take advantage of all of their competitors’ market-making dollars, while offering solutions that meet and exceed customer needs.

That’s a pretty clever Zero Gravity strategy if you ask me! It is surely a completely new way of thinking about being a follower and a market leader.

By the way, Apple does the same thing quite often, just look at the iPod and iPhone 🙂