Make Marketing History

The views of a marketing deviant.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Mobile Or Portable?

While remaining sceptical about the potential take-up, I also dread the imposition on my personal space of people browsing mobile television via their various electronic devices.

The confluence of technologists creating ever more sophisticated miniature devices, mobile operaters seeking revenue streams to offset their huge bandwidth expenditures and content creators seeking new distribution channels is quite a snowball, but I often wonder if it's rolling down the right path.

Miniaturisation begets portability yet it is assumed that mobility is always the key attribute, particularly in this country where cells are for prisoners and phones have always been called mobiles. The devices are astonishing but the network operaters' focus has always been on urging their partners for more functionality and more content. We've already seen a degree of backlash against the overcomplication of phones, so why should we assume that they're right about this?

Is the killer benefit really the fact that I can use the product on the move? Or is it portability? Do I want the experience/service while I'm on or is it more important to carry the potentail experience with me so that I can use it in different locations (while not necessarily moving)? There is very little marketing of that latter characteristic - perhaps because it doesn't seem quite so sexy and technologically amazing. Well perhaps sexy and technologically amazing isn't the way to go.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

An excellent point! A portable music player is a great idea because it is easy to move and listen, but a portable video delivery system is pointless.

Oh god, imagine sitting on the bus surrounded by people watching shitty TV on their tiny screens (because sods law says that people who watch TV on their mobiles will of course watch crap....)

1:08 PM, June 24, 2006  
Blogger kaylen said...

if i can read the paper/a novel and walk i'm sure other people can learn to watch tv and walk. i am not otherwise known as graceful. i did just join a roller derby though, so maybe that will 'learn me some'.

on the other hand some people can't manage to watch tv and eat at the same time. not in a way that doesn't involve their mouth hanging open for the entire process. yuck... either way, when it comes down to it, my vote is "nay & nay again".


ps. you spelled 'skeptical' wrong, peaches.

5:16 PM, June 24, 2006  
Blogger john dodds said...

No I spelled sceptical right.

3:06 AM, June 25, 2006  
Blogger kaylen said...

christ, i'm an ass.
i am. my apologies. 'c' and 'k' varients always get me. i prefer the 'k' because its ascender reflects the ascender on the 'l' and the 'p' in the middle-ish... it just makes things more symmetrical. you should take a little while and consider the benefits of swapping.

10:25 AM, June 25, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmmmmm.

8:13 PM, June 26, 2006  

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