On 19th July, we took over Google’s Campus building in Shoreditch to host the latest TechTalk Live. This time, Zeebox CEO, Anthony Rose took to the stage to explore what the future holds for TV and in particular, the role of the second screen.
Take a look of the first video below to see the highlights of the night or the second to see the full version of Anthony’s presentation.
Highlights:
Full video:
Common opinion generally decrees that, in the future, the majority of consumers will be moving to the cloud to obtain broader access to music. While this is almost certainly true, in the fragmented world of consumer music consumption, a ‘collector’ mentality and desire for personal ownership continue to exist amongst many music fans. The music industry needs to ensure these different needs are addressed, rather than assuming a single model will satisfy all consumers.
Vinyl records not affected by the industry downturn?
Over the last few years a pleasing story has continued to appear like clockwork in the press. Amid general doom and gloom and tales of music industry collapse, we are told, somewhat counter-intuitively, that sales of vinyl records are continuing to increase. See the chronologically listed selection of articles below for proof.[1]
Despite a deluge of new device offerings, tablet PCs look unlikely to become mass market this year, meaning individual manufacturers will have to strongly differentiate their products to grab the limited share of the market available. Apple still dominates in consumer minds, but Samsung, Blackberry and other Android devices look set to offer a compelling challenge.
As expected, February’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the CES show in January revealed a surge of new tablet offerings from the major hardware manufacturers, all vying to compete with the success of the ubiquitous Apple iPad.
But while the tablet market is clearly in ascendancy, at present it is still very much nascent and we are unlikely to see the same growth this year as we expect from other categories, such as Smartphones.[i]
2011 tablet market likely to remain niche
Our online social networks are a key source of information and increasingly influence what we read, share and buy. However, if we do not filter out the mundane we risk missing the information that is most important to us and becoming a victim of information overload.
It occurred to me the other day that I have too many friends. By this, I don’t mean the family, friends and colleagues I socialise with throughout the week and, you know, actually spend my leisure time with face to face. More, the numerous people sitting on my Facebook account I haven’t spoken to for nigh-on five years, (the occasional shallow digital platitude aside), but who seem intent on breathlessly updating their minute movements on the notice board whenever I (increasingly infrequently) log-in. Back in 2006 when the Facebook really took off, there was something ego-boostingly satisfying about racing to my first 100 friends, but now I find it a little tiring. Do I really need them all?
High levels of consideration for competitor tablets suggest Apple won’t have it all their own way in 2011 but they’ll be thankful for the competition in the long run.
A recent article in The Guardian [1] posited that one of the best things that could happen to Apple to ensure continued success of the iPad was for competitors to launch tablet computers, and for these products to enjoy moderate levels of success. As happened with the iPod many moons ago, the thinking here is that a batch of serious rival devices would help cement tablets as a ‘legitimate’ category in consumers’ minds, encouraging continued sales and crucially allowing Apple to progressively refine and release further iterations of their hardware. (Although the impressive sales of the iPad so far would suggest this won’t be an issue.)
With the rapid growth of smartphone ownership over the last couple of years, it was inevitable that people in the UK would increasingly turn to their mobiles to access local travel information and journey planning applications. More than ever, consumers expect to source information quickly, spontaneously and with minimal effort – which begs the question, why would you ever need to use a paper map when you have your phone to hand?
Over the last 2 years, GfK have run online qualitative discussions with smartphone owners, asking them exactly that. Over the course of a 3 day online discussion in 2009, which was repeated in 2010, we discovered that the various map formats that exist (both physical and digital) are still widely used, with each format offering unique functional and emotional benefits. There is clearly not one maps service that ticks all boxes for consumers as yet.
3D stereo anaglyph picture, use red blue glasses to view anaglyphic photo
For the last year or so, 3D has been one of technology’s hottest topics, with the success of 3D movies paving the way for TV manufacturers, to the extent that two in five UK adults now express an interest in buying a 3D screen for their home. But what is the opportunity for mobile device manufacturers?
There has certainly been a lot of market activity (e.g. Sharp’s unveiling of a 3D mobile phone display) in anticipation of consumer demand, but will public enthusiasm migrate to mobile phone devices?
A recent GfK Technology survey, found that 12% of mobile phone users were interested in 3D photos and 8% were interested in 3D gaming. It is likely that the latter and any apps that embrace Augmented Reality or which offer the opportunity to enhance user generated content are going to drive most interest.
The future of 6 Music may be decided later this month; a recent survey suggests that keeping the station alive should form part of the BBC’s duty, regardless of whether recent publicity has engaged a sufficiently large enough audience to justify its existence to the number crunchers.
Over the last few months BBC 6 Music has successfully managed to do something it previously had not been notable for; namely commanding a significant share of radio listeners and attracting correspondingly high levels of media and public interest. (According to recently released RAJAR figures* the digital station was up 47% on the previous quarter and 50% on the year, bringing it to a total of 1.02m listeners in Q1 2010.)
The catalyst for this growth certainly appears to be the leak back in February that the BBC was considering shutting the station down, officially confirmed by a Mark Thompson announcement in March; a move which has resulted in public outcry, a protest outside Broadcasting House, with another planned for 22 May and huge media publicity.
GfK NOP research shows good levels of interest in 3D TV amongst adult consumers. The main barriers to adoption will eventually disappear, but are likely to stall early widespread adoption.
Despite the continuing efforts of manufacturers, it seems that we the consumer are still not recycling our old mobile phones. Research by GfK NOP way back in 2007 first highlighted the problem of consumer lethargy but since then recent reports suggest there has been little improvement since.
An article by Telephony online for example, bemoans that:
“when a mobile phone reaches its end of life or, more likely, a consumer opts to upgrade, the three most common places for it to end up are a landfill, an incinerator or the consumer’s desk drawer. Nokia’s own studies find that only about 3% of consumers are recycling their handsets today …there could be as many as one billion sitting in desks, consumers aren’t spending the time or effort to seek out a recycling program.”
