By Kate on 9 March 2010, at 22:26 pm  There’s been a lot of discussion around the possibilities of time-shifted TV viewing and what it means for Social TV. Again, there are certain situations in which viewers’ desire to socialize around a given program is being supported by technology that allows them to watch the program whenever they want, making the socializing aspect the center of the experience.
But what happens when the situation almost demands real-time viewing? And what happens if that real-time viewing encourages socializing to an even further extent? While being able to watch a program when you want to watch it is really valuable in many instances, sometimes you just need to “go live.”
I’m thinking of events or broadcasts that you just can’t miss – they just aren’t the same recorded.
- Sporting events: You can’t watch Opening Day of the Red Sox even one minute delayed. Absolutely not.
- News or current events: Some of the to-the-minute comments that come from watching the State of the Union address just don’t mean the same thing the following day.
- Entertainment: Let’s be honest ladies, there’s a certain satisfaction when you and your girlfriends can stay with, or even ahead of Joan and Melissa Rivers on the red carpet to the Oscars and chat about it with friends.
- Reality TV: “No, don’t do it!” at the season finale of the Bachelor is not the same an hour later. (For the record, I don’t watch this show, but was interested to see what the Twitter stream was doing for #bachelor last Monday, and 90% of the comments happening would have been meaningless even 10 minutes after the fact).
You’ve missed something that can’t be replicated, and it’s something more than just the program. It’s the social interactions: the trash-talking, the gossiping, the despair! In fact, the people that do want to socialize around some of these programs prefer to do it in real-time. I’ve met more than a few people who have told me that they know one or more people that are all into the same show (pick your show) and want to share thoughts in real-time.
Since issues of distance and coordination are still an issue, this really supports the idea of having a robust system in place to be able to encourage that real-time socialization among your friends.
What other instances have you valued both real-time viewing and social viewing? What solutions have you found to work?
By Steve on 5 March 2010, at 20:48 pm  As usual, Tracy Swedlow put on another great TVOT event this year – thanks Tracy! TVOT 2010 was particularly interesting because of the dynamic changes in the market, such as the debate between cable and OTT (including CE manufacturers and others). While there was a lot to pick up, here are my top 5 takeaways:
- If you’re a software application or have content and programming to distribute, it’s best to bet on all the horses – cable, managed IPTV, OTT including connected TVs, DBS and Widget stores. Each has its own strength across different demographic audiences. If your goal is be relevant for 13-65 year olds, you need to be working in multiple camps.
- If you’re a consumer, these are promising times as everyone wants to bring you something better – but they’re far from perfect times. You may be still stuck with a monthly bill from your cable company and not getting all you want when you want. While some of the alternative solutions like OTT are new and not yet in the “easy to use” (certainly not easy to activate) category, they are improving by adding more content and working on ways to be more seamless and easy to use.
- Communication is clearly emerging as its own category. Widget stores, connected TVs and more all have Facebook and Twitter – it’s almost as if it’s old news to have those embedded services. Now the question is: how do widget stores, OTT, CE and others differentiate from one another? It appears solutions are out there but each company needs to make the “onboarding” or time launch easy and simple.
- Open platforms are clearly the direction things are going – OTT providers and widget stores are making significant strides to quickly deliver new services. EBIF is creating a lot of smoke, now we’ll see if a fire starts as 2010 has been teed up as the year for Interactive TV (Yes, again. No, I don’t know how many years running that this has been “THE year for iTV ”)
- 3D TV continues to make headlines – apparently the glasses will be compatible with different TVs. We’ll see how fast this takes off…seems like consumers have spent a lot of $$ recently to get to HDTV.
Were you at TVOT? What were your top takeaways?
By Kate on 4 March 2010, at 9:50 am The chatter on Twitter yesterday at TVOT had some good little gems that we wanted to share with everyone. We’re looking forward to the same level of discussion on today’s schedule!
What other gems did
By Kate on 1 March 2010, at 19:12 pm  We’ve spoken a few times about the benefits of real-time communication (“The Benefits of Real-Time Communication Capabilities,” 7 December 2009), and the shift to “appointment TV” (“Ashlee Vance Indicates that People Want Social TV, and Now,” 6 January 2010). I keep coming back to these concepts and how they might relate to the thought processes of consumers – in this case, TV viewers – and really feel they’ll be major driving forces for the industry for a few reasons:
- Communication vs programming. This really highlights the fact that the communication part of this equation is increasingly becoming more important than simply watching a TV program. The desire to socialize around a particular show is encouraging users to find ways to accommodate that action. With technological capabilities increasing, people can do this, and they can do it more easily. This will only continue, and providers will need to think about how they can best deliver that.
- My schedule vs the TV schedule. In addition to wanting to socialize, viewers also want to socialize on their own time. It’s no longer that you have to plan every Tuesday night at 8pm because X television show is airing. Now it’s “when’s the best time for us to all “get together” this week?” (See #3).
- In-person vs virtual. Ok, so communication is important to people, and their schedule is equally as important. To make this process even more flexible, especially in terms of the socializing aspect, the ability to come together virtually really is the glue that holds this together for the future. If you can’t physically get together and socialize –which is often the case – you can accomplish the same thing virtually using various technology solutions (we like SMS!). Virtual options also make scheduling a lot easier, and so there’s less of a need to choose between your schedule and the TV schedule… in many cases the TV schedule may be just fine.
Social TV gives viewers options that makes the necessity of having to always choose between these desires less of an issue, and it makes the whole viewing process a lot more flexible – and therefore a lot more alluring. This is where Social TV should be, and it’s where it’s going.
By Kate on 22 February 2010, at 19:53 pm  We enjoyed MWC last week, and we’ve also enjoyed following some of the stuff we might have missed, as there’s a lot going on there! We put together a list of some good resources for you if you’re interested as well.
Mobile World Congress 2010 – Tom Hume , Managing Director of Future Platforms, draws some conclusions after the week’s events, including that social will be big… as expected!
Google CEO Eric Schmidt at MWC Puts Mobile First – A thorough write-up by eWeek on Schmidt’s talk, including some focus on the issues of convergence that were discussed.
Week in Review – A thorough round up of some of the more brand-focused announcements and happenings of the week, from SlashGear.
#MWC: Interesting Stats for 2010 – If you’re interested in the demographics of MWC, GoMo News has a some interesting insight…
Mobile World Congress 2010 in a nutshell -Yet another good wrap up of the week, by ubergizmo.
Mobile World Congress 2010 in Photos – mocoNews offers a series of photos that act as great visual ‘oh yeah!’s for some of the great events and technologies at the conference.
Engadget Podcast 184: MWC 2010 Roundup 02.19.2010 - A podcast of the week’s events.
The 12 Best New Phones You Can’t Buy – Gizmodo offers an equally as stimulating reminder of all the really cool handhelds that were on display at MWC.
By Gene on 22 February 2010, at 3:54 am I wanted to share a few of the thoughts I was left with from Mobile World Congress last week…. these are the ones that made it with me through the weekend:
- Social Networks and mobile is hot. Everyone believes that mobile and Social Networks will be the primary interface – as opposed to PC. If this isn’t happening already, it will soon, especially by the under 25 crowd.
- IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Rich Communication Suite (RCS) by the big telecom technology companies (e.g. – Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, Motorola, etc.) are making big pushes toward convergence.
- Data and applications are the future (implying without stating that voice is yesterday’s news); SMS/MMS is considered part of the future.
What did you walk away with from MWC?
By John on 18 February 2010, at 11:44 am 
SMS is the most widely used data application – beating email, IM, and social networking sites. More people text than own TV’s, read newspapers or drive cars. No wonder states are scrambling to pass laws against texting while driving - a recent Mobile Messaging Study commissioned by NeverFail found that 76% of respondents text while on the road.
That same study said that 95% of respondents checked messages outside of work, 78% in the bathroom, and 11% during “intimate moments”. 79% even take their work-related devices on vacation. Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research, who conducted the study, said “As email has become integrated into mission-critical business processes, employees are feeling extraordinary pressure to be constantly available.”
It isn’t just business users that are tied to using mobile messaging – adults and teens are texting all the time, even in their sleep. Jessica Castillo, of Italy, Texas, sent several text messages to her boyfriend during the night.
So, is it an addiction? Some doctors have declared it as such and some people have even checked themselves into clinics for treatment. Drs. Hallowell and Ratey call the need to compulsively check for text and mesages “Pseudo-attention deficit disorder“. Text messaging was reported to have addictive tendencies by the Global Messaging Survey by Nokia in 2001 and was confirmed to be addictive by a study at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 2004. Another study at the University of Queensland in Australia found that text messaging is the most addictive digital service on mobile or internet and as addictive as cigarette smoking.
However, underlying this “need” to check email or text is another need that is being met – to connect with others. In the book, 3G Marketing: Communities and Strategic Partnerships, Ahonen et al. say that SMS is the first service to meet our need for “reachability”. As our relationships spread out in time and space, we see less of people in person. Our connections get maintained 160 characters at a time in the texts we send and receive, and the many devices we have enable us to make these connections any time and anywhere.
Instead of an illness, couldn’t this just be another opportunity for people to learn to adapt to new freedoms, similar to those experienced when leaving home for the first time or getting a driver’s license? In those cases, experience leads to more disciplined behavior and eventually more effective use.
If we accept mobile messaging as a way of life, then it falls on the devices and services to make it as simple and convenient as possible. Our messages should be available on all our devices, allowing us to choose the best one for the situation we are in – like our TVs for viewing when we are in our living rooms, our PCs for chatting in our offices, and our phones when waiting at a restaurant. And if we text a little more often than we “should”, maybe that isn’t such a bad thing?
Do you consider mobile messaging an addiction or a necessity? How do you manage the freedom of time and place?
By Kate on 15 February 2010, at 19:25 pm I was catching up on podcasts this weekend, and listened to the Media Hacks series over at Six Pixels of Separation, the blog of Twist Image. The January 31st episode was all about the iPad, and at one point I believe CC Chapman said – somewhat offhandedly – that this type of technology and others like it were really driving people to stop using text message as a form of communication.
What he was pointing to was that with more ways to reach friends, people may be less inclined to go right for the SMS option in some situations. With the increase of data plans on mobile phones and the ability to access the internet from almost anywhere now, device users have more communication options at their disposal, and they’re available more often than not. They can email, be on Facebook, and Twitter all from their phone.
 Additionally, with the iPad, without either hacking the device, or using an SMS-specific app, there’s little you can do with a text message.
However, just as technology is giving people more ways to communicate, technology is also offering more options for SMS usage. At this point, text messaging isn’t confined to your cell phone any more. You can text your friends from your computer. Soon you’ll be able to interact with a group of your friends on the TV using SMS. The ways you can use text is increasing.
I also don’t need to remind you that text messaging is increasing in general, so it’s a technology that will likely continue to be used for some time.
Yes, the different platforms that people can use is increasing. But the ways you can use each individual platform is also increasing. People will still use text messages – they aren’t going anywhere soon.
By Steve on 12 February 2010, at 18:42 pm One of my favorite things about the mobile market is how extremely competitive it is. I love this competitive nature because it’s the ultimate rocket fuel for innovation. With that in mind as we approach next week’s MWC event, we’re hoping – and anxious – to see even more new cutting edge products and services.
Next week’s MWC promises to be as exciting as the mobile space evolves at breakneck speed. Just think about what Google’s announced in past few months relative to mobile – the Nexus One and Google and Verizon team with the Android. Eric Schmidt will keynote to wrap up Tuesday’s session and given Google’s aggressive pursuit of mobile, I suspect it will be a good session to see.
Other promising sessions are “The Device Marketplace” on Tuesday afternoon, the “Mobile Innovation a Vision of 2020” on Wednesday afternoon, and the “Mobile Advertising – Shaking off the Shackles of Legacy Thinking” on Thursday.
If you’re looking for MediaFriends, you can find us in the Innovation Zone @ The Qtel Group Pavilion on Monday and Thursday. Have a great show!
By Cappy on 10 February 2010, at 21:09 pm new study [link;http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100209.html] released by the mobile market research firm NPD shows that – at least in the US – mobile device buying decisions are largely based on how easy it is to use the device to send SMS or text messages. Mobile devices with full keyboards are a major factor in these decisions. mocoNews.net reports [http://moconews.net/article/419-americans-love-for-texting-drives-qwerty-sales/] that in the last quarter of 2009 all of the top 10 best-selling handsets had either touchscreen or QWERTY keyboards, some had both.
New technology is becoming available to make texting using touchscreen keyboards even easier. Developed by Swype [http://www.swypeinc.com/], a Seattle-based startup, the software allows users to tap the first letter of a word and simply drag it to the remaining letters without having to accurately type each one. Samsung’s dubbed the technology “Genius Texting” [http://moconews.net/article/419-samsung-omnia-ii-with-new-genius-texting-coming-dec.-2/]. It’s already available on some phones but is destined for touchscreen keyboards everywhere. It will undoubtedly have an impact on the use of SMS, assuming its adoption rate becomes as ubiquitous as Tegic’s T9 technology which ships on nearly every mobile handset on the planet today. As people become more accustomed to using multiple devices for communicating (mobiles, game consoles, tablets, and others) technological advances like these will surely drive SMS rates skyward.
Mobile carriers will undoubtedly be interested in the surge of use that new keyboards and improved mobile user interfaces will have on SMS usage rates. There are already rumblings about whether or not pricing models based on metered usage [http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/usage-based-pricing-inevitable/2010-02-03] are the way the industry is headed to remain profitable. Increased SMS use will likely drive the argument. It will be interesting to see the outcome, especially since J.D. Power recently found that customers who pay for premium unlimited mobile plans were happiest with their service [http://www.rcrwireless.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100204/CUSTOMERS/100209982/-1/Content_].
Whatever the outcome the fact remains: people are texting more and are more comfortable doing it from multiple devices.
A new study released by the mobile market research firm NPD shows that – at least in the US – mobile device buying decisions are largely based on how easy it is to use the device to send SMS or text messages. Mobile devices with full keyboards are by far the most popular these days because of it. In fact, mocoNews.net reports that in the last quarter of 2009 all of the top 10 best-selling handsets had either touchscreen or QWERTY keyboards, some had both.
Supporting this trend new technology is becoming available to make texting using touchscreen keyboards even easier. Developed by Swype, a Seattle-based startup, the software allows users to tap the first letter of a word and simply drag it to the remaining letters without having to accurately type each one. Samsung’s dubbed the technology “Genius Texting” and it’s already available on some phones but is destined for touchscreen keyboards everywhere. It will undoubtedly have an impact on the use of SMS, assuming its adoption rate becomes as ubiquitous as Tegic’s T9 technology which ships on nearly every mobile handset on the planet today. As people become more accustomed to using multiple devices for communicating (mobiles, game consoles, tablets, and others) technological advances like these will surely drive SMS rates skyward.
Mobile carriers will undoubtedly be interested in the surge of use that new keyboards and improved mobile user interfaces will have on SMS usage rates. There are already rumblings about whether or not pricing models based on metered usage are the way the industry is headed to remain profitable. Increased SMS use will likely stoke the fires around the argument. It will be interesting to see the outcome, especially since J.D. Power recently found that customers who pay for premium unlimited mobile plans were happiest with their service.
Whatever the outcome the fact remains: people are texting more and are more comfortable doing it from multiple devices. Does a keyboard matter to you when you purchase a new mobile device?
|
|
