Whatever...

Hold the phone, the iPad just got lighter

By Lindsey Challis

The new iPad was announced this week, its biggest claim to fame being that it weighs less than previous versions.  Wow, Apple, I am blown away, you have excelled.  I don’t doubt that a lighter iPad will be a benefit – easier to carry in your handbag or to hold with one hand while reading the news – but it isn’t really groundbreaking from an end user point of view.  If anything, it reminds me of discussing who had the smallest mobile phone in the school cafeteria, back when the Nokia 3310 was in vogue.

When the iPhone first came out it truly was a ‘game changer.’  As more people got one, more people couldn’t live without one.  I waited for a torturous 24 month contract to run its course, with a broken Nokia mobile – that had claimed to be the Nokia equivalent of an iPhone at the time – before I finally got my iPhone 4S, and then I wanted to wrap it up in cotton wool.  I needed to double-bag, which meant not only buying a robust phone case, but insurance too.  Although that didn’t stop me leaving it in a taxi one night, it does show what ‘disrupting the market’ really means. 

We’re over three years down the line from that broken Nokia and the mobile scene is quite different.  Most people now own a smartphone – even my Mum, albeit without any data allowance – in some cases people own two, with an iPad for good measure.  Back then the differentiator was whether you had a smartphone or not, now the battle is between the smartphones, which is a far less exciting duel.  Let’s face it, how impressive is it really that your iPad is lighter than mine?

Recent updates have failed to set any of the smartphones apart as the iPhone did when it entered the market.  Siri, for example, although quirky and at times funny, isn’t really practical when you’re walking down a London street with a bus hurtling by.  Let alone the fact that it still can’t decipher my Essex accent – I said Matt, not map.  So what’s the next real innovation that’s going to raise the bar?

Could it be Phonebloks?  A lego-style build your own phone, that allows you to repair and upgrade parts, customise so it better fits your lifestyle, but keep the same core device.  A phone that will deliver familiarity, sustainability, functionality and even innovation – the near on a million Thunderclap supporters seem to think so!

When it boils down to it, the mark of real industry ‘disruption’ is when the end user doesn’t see it coming.  So, just in case it’s around the corner and while we’re in the grips of one-upmanship based on weight, I’ll just stick with what I know.  What I know is a shiny new iPhone 5S with 4G and 32GB capacity – I wonder if I got up-sold?

 

Off to sunny Spain

By Claire Ayles

This week I was lucky enough to head to Barcelona, along with our client Verne Global and our US partner agency Connect 2 Communications, to pick up our prestigious ‘Comms Team of the Year’ Stevie Award.  

Here I am together with Lisa Rhodes, VP of corporate strategy and market development at Verne Global (left), and Richard Williams, president of Connect 2 Communications, showing off our silverware.

Held in the achingly cool W Hotel, the awards ceremony was a very grand affair, and we did our best to make the most of the facilities. 

No television without my laptop, tablet or smartphone!

By Anne-Hélène Piet

Are you one of those people who watch television with your laptop on your knees, smartphone in your right hand and tablet in the left one? 

A recent survey, conducted by Mediametrie with Mesagraph, reveals a rising phenomenon in France: ‘social television’. This emerging trend involves commenting on TV shows on social media, blogs or directly on the TV channel’s website while watching it live on TV. In France, about 20 percent of internet users are already active in posting online comments about TV programmes in this very way. Predictably enough, this multiscreen user experience is most prevalent among 15 to 24 year old young adults, with 31 percent admitting to the practice. 

The reasons for getting involved in social television often vary - indeed, 70 percent of respondents said they did so with the aim of sharing their opinion, 50 percent want  to share the TV programmes they like and 30 percent are looking for further information on the show they’re posting about.  Of course, some programmes ignite more conversation on the web than others, such as sports, entertainment and politics as it provides viewers with the opportunity to support their favourite candidate and teams, or be more engaged in the debate. 

Brands and channels are also playing an important part in making television social, such as producers who create dedicated hashtags for their TV shows, or presenters who call for viewers to comment throughout the programme. Those digital conversations enable channels to get a live feedback from viewers, to know more about them and to catch their attention. When you watch television while posting to social media, you get more involved in the programme than you would if you were just idly watching it. Those posts reinforce your concentration on the content instead of distracting you. And sometimes, even if you think the TV show is very bad, you might prefer to keep watching it and post comments on Twitter or Facebook, rather than zapping and looking for a better programme, as I sometimes do! 

While social media can represent a real opportunity for brands and channels, it can also have unfortunate consequences.  We’ve recently seen an example of this in France with a new access prime time talk-show, launched on television at the beginning of September. The audience has been very low, the presenter has been subjected to very violent and intense criticism, and the programme might be dropped from the channel’s schedule. As long as the “haters” aren’t writing anything particularly insulting or libelous, there isn’t much you can do – apart from keeping silent or better, coming up with a social media strategy to very carefully answer them. This is the freedom of speech law being played out live on the internet and it just shows how not pleasing an audience or correctly engaging them can lead to the hasty extinction of a TV programme – after all, everything spreads like wildfire on the web.