2011 is going to be the year of the tablet. I’m at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas and all the major brands such as Blackberry, Samsung, Motorola, Acer and the chunky looking Toshiba are unveiling their new tablets on various operating systems.
All these tablets are going to push the price of all tablets way way down (I mean, if you don’t have the brand clout of Apple, you’re going to need to cut the cost). And more tablets in the hands of more people are going to revolutionize the ‘third way’ for the digital advertising industry – the new middle ground between your laptop or PC, and your smartphone. (Will Tablet Kill the laptop? What do you think?) Apple already knows it’s a sales opportunity ripe for picking, with the iAd personalised mobile advertising platform.
So if we’re all going to be tablet-tapping this year, how are the big guns planning to tap into our consciousness and our wallets? Last year Yahoo revealed it was working on a new advertising system specifically for tablets, that was a whole world away from the traditional pop-ups and banner adverts.
More like traditional product placements that you see on TV, the new system would exploit the bigger screen and power of tablets to give consumers an interactive interface with subtly placed products to entice web traffic.
At this year’s CES, Yahoo are going to reveal how tablets can be used in synch with an on-air program, and all manner of other wonderful techie things that you would never have dreamt of.
Soon, having a tablet will be as common as owning a mobile phone, and it’s becoming pretty clear that brands are going to have amazing opportunities to create totally new content and business models where fresh revenue can be had. The fragmentation of the tablet world for marketers may be a little hard to swallow. Which system do I build for? Agh, this is the bitter pill.
In a few months there will be 2 more to add to the list, HP's Palm based tablet and RIM's Playbook added to the iPad and the countless Android based ones. The issue on what to build for is a balance between apps and web and the pros and cons of doing each.
For news and such apps may transition to the web where accessibility remains high . It may be a question of site optimization based on the device you are using more than anything else.
The best apps are usually games and it will all be about the largest user base and most consistent developing environment and right now that playing field is one aka the iPad. Android is great but with so many devices and capabilities your mileage will very.
Posted by: clickeric | January 10, 2011 at 10:28 AM
The tablet as a medium opens up huge advertising opportunities - if there ever was a way to do fully interactive advertising this is definitely it. Being able to embed video and games into what looks like a print ad and allow for potentially unlimited interactivity is very exciting, creative opportunities are endless.
Posted by: Katerryna | January 08, 2011 at 02:49 PM