By Grant Wright, (W)right On CEO
Is smaller better? This has been on my mind lately, especially since reading that for the first time smart phone shipments have surpassed PC sales.
According to the analysts at IDC, in the 2010 fourth quarter 101 million smart phones were shipped, a whopping 87 per cent increase from the same quarter a year prior. Meanwhile, only 92 million PCs were shipped with this representing just a 5.5 per cent increase from the same period 2009. On entire year sales, PCs still ruled at 346 million to 302 million smart phones.
Is smaller better? This has been on my mind lately, especially since reading that for the first time smart phone shipments have surpassed PC sales.
According to the analysts at IDC, in the 2010 fourth quarter 101 million smart phones were shipped, a whopping 87 per cent increase from the same quarter a year prior. Meanwhile, only 92 million PCs were shipped with this representing just a 5.5 per cent increase from the same period 2009. On entire year sales, PCs still ruled at 346 million to 302 million smart phones.
But with smart phones increasingly capable for many of the functions that PCs are bought for – surfing the web, checking email - I think the trend is clear. Why lug your PC around (or camera and camcorder for that matter) when you already have much of what you need in your pocket?
From a PR industry standpoint, this has profound implications. ‘Surfing the web’ no longer means just looking up a coffee shop or checking a company’s website in a passive sense, and it no longer means using a computer to do it.
Pew study data from May 2010 found that 38 per cent of US adults who have a mobile device access the Internet with it, up from 25 percent the year prior. Pew also found that 82 per cent of US adults have a mobile device, meaning just more than 31 percent of all US adults use a mobile device to log into the Internet. And what are they doing there? 23 per cent accessed social networks, 20 per cent viewed a video and 11 per cent even contributed to a charity. With cell phone carriers’ push to implement 4G wireless networks throughout the country, these percentages will continue rising.
For example, Verizon’s brand new LTE 4G wireless network launched in December achieves 10 times the speed of their EV-DO 3G network and is already available in about 40 cities and growing – the wireless brakes are off! Stream a two hour hi-def movie to your pocket without annoying buffering? No problem!
So what are the PR implications? Well, like the devastation wrought on traditional print media when consumers could go to their computer and receive richer content faster, consumers are about to be unshackled from their chair and computers when interacting with content.
But here’s the catch – the experience is crammed into about three or four inches of screen. Your favorite artist’s new music video? Chances are increasing that it will be consumed from a four-inch window. Imagine the fourth row of dancers behind Lady Gaga now being a fraction of an inch tall and you get the idea. The great new splashy online ad? Yep, four inch window. And how many screen changes will it take to scroll through a news article? A lot.
“Ah!” you say. “Screens can be bigger!” What about the new iPad or the new Samsung tablet!? Cool, yea, but there’s a limiting factor - the form-factor of the lowly pocket or that cute little purse! Who wants to look like Urkel, all device bulked up? Most guys I know still haven’t figured out where to comfortably carry their wallet. And I just can’t see anything bigger than a smart phone as the grudging must-have accessory in women’s fashion.
And for the argument that people just won’t want to consume multi-media on a tiny device due to the inferior experience, well, that’s what the music industry thought about inferior MP3 files and their inherent quality loss. iTunes seems to be doing just fine, and in the “Price, Quality, Speed – Pick Two” game, quality of multi-media consumption so far seems in a losing battle.
I think history will record that 2011 was another game changing year, when size really came to matter for how good communications should best be adapted for an increasingly tech savvy world.
So is smaller better? It better be.
From a PR industry standpoint, this has profound implications. ‘Surfing the web’ no longer means just looking up a coffee shop or checking a company’s website in a passive sense, and it no longer means using a computer to do it.
Pew study data from May 2010 found that 38 per cent of US adults who have a mobile device access the Internet with it, up from 25 percent the year prior. Pew also found that 82 per cent of US adults have a mobile device, meaning just more than 31 percent of all US adults use a mobile device to log into the Internet. And what are they doing there? 23 per cent accessed social networks, 20 per cent viewed a video and 11 per cent even contributed to a charity. With cell phone carriers’ push to implement 4G wireless networks throughout the country, these percentages will continue rising.
For example, Verizon’s brand new LTE 4G wireless network launched in December achieves 10 times the speed of their EV-DO 3G network and is already available in about 40 cities and growing – the wireless brakes are off! Stream a two hour hi-def movie to your pocket without annoying buffering? No problem!
So what are the PR implications? Well, like the devastation wrought on traditional print media when consumers could go to their computer and receive richer content faster, consumers are about to be unshackled from their chair and computers when interacting with content.
But here’s the catch – the experience is crammed into about three or four inches of screen. Your favorite artist’s new music video? Chances are increasing that it will be consumed from a four-inch window. Imagine the fourth row of dancers behind Lady Gaga now being a fraction of an inch tall and you get the idea. The great new splashy online ad? Yep, four inch window. And how many screen changes will it take to scroll through a news article? A lot.
“Ah!” you say. “Screens can be bigger!” What about the new iPad or the new Samsung tablet!? Cool, yea, but there’s a limiting factor - the form-factor of the lowly pocket or that cute little purse! Who wants to look like Urkel, all device bulked up? Most guys I know still haven’t figured out where to comfortably carry their wallet. And I just can’t see anything bigger than a smart phone as the grudging must-have accessory in women’s fashion.
And for the argument that people just won’t want to consume multi-media on a tiny device due to the inferior experience, well, that’s what the music industry thought about inferior MP3 files and their inherent quality loss. iTunes seems to be doing just fine, and in the “Price, Quality, Speed – Pick Two” game, quality of multi-media consumption so far seems in a losing battle.
I think history will record that 2011 was another game changing year, when size really came to matter for how good communications should best be adapted for an increasingly tech savvy world.
So is smaller better? It better be.
