business today media tablets
Writing this article in the middle of January 2011, any extant Christmas cheer has been washed away by the seasonal rain. And yet barely three weeks ago cheer was in abundance with many Christmas stockings packed with something that is leading a revolution in the way in which TV is consumed. That is to say this year’s gift du jour - or should that be Noël - was a media tablet. Joe O’Halloran reports.
TV keeps taking
the tablets G
ift givers’ generosity aside, there’s probably never been a better time to buy a media tablet such as the rapidly ubiquitous iPad as a host
of devices land in the market, most of which will invariably be bought and used for their video display capabilities. The days of the third, fourth, even fifth screen are definitely here. But what is not clear is how the providers of the services that these tablets will run can develop business models that can exploit the imminent mass availability of such in-demand portable video devices.
But let’s see just how real this demand is. The iPad in particular is one of the fastest selling pieces of electronics equipment ever, racking up on 21 June 2010 three million sales only 80 days after launch. And with such the demand for media tablets, and the iPad in particular, the general PC industry is feeling the strain. According to research released by IDC in January 2011, the worldwide PC
The advent of portable media tablets, which are just TVs to walk around with, will be accompanied by a commensurate evolution in paid-for content models.
6 l ibe l january/february 2011 l
www.ibeweb.com
market shrunk in 2010 due in the main to competition from media tablets. That is to say the iPad. Fellow analyst Gartner concurred. Revealed Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner: “Overall, holiday PC sales were weak in many key regions due to the intensifying competition in consumer spending. Media tablets, such as the iPad, as well as other consumer electronic devices, such as game consoles, all competed against PCs.” In addition to eating into PC market share by their growing popularity, tablets are also taking up increasing amounts of essential enabling technologies. That is manufacturers of essential electronics components are struggling to meet demand from the tablet market. Display technology analyst iSuppli predicts that global tablet shipments will more than triple in 2011, reaching 57.6 million units, with Apple claiming nearly two-thirds of devices. And this will be in the face of very stiff competition. Around 80 tablets were launched in 2010 and it’s not an
unlikely scenario that this figure will climb into three figures during 2011. Proof positive of such demand, and the compatibility of video applications for such devices, came at CES 2011 which some pundits have branded the tablet show. As is traditional, Apple was the elephant (not) in the room at CES but that didn’t stop a plethora of product announcements taking place. Microsoft and HP announced that they will be launching such a device and others following suit include Samsung, Vizio, Toshiba, Dell, Panasonic, Motorola and many others. But despite such demand and a whole host of companies willing to make tablets, are they actually of use for the TV industry or are they actually just more portable laptops which will see use for watching freely available video over Wi-Fi, in particular free OTT video services such a the BBC iPlayer? The good news is that operators will not let this opportunity pass; there are likely going to be well defined business models which will either defend existing services or capture
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