Slate PC Tablets - Sweeping World-changers?

A resurgence in newspapers? A whole new era of journalism and information exchange? Formerly finicky subscribers gladly buying online content? Technology information convergence like we've never seen?

The rumble of record holiday sales of the iPod Touch -- once considered a pricey niche knockoff of the iPhone -- may represent the tip of a new disruptive technology that could profoundly change media, consumer behavior and how we all work.

Hubris? Hyperbole? Maybe.

Or maybe not.

Consumer interest in the iPod Touch - which provides access to thousands of iPhone applications without the AT&T contract -- attracted a seabox of interest from analysts for very good reasons besides increased revenue. For a knockoff product, iPod Touch sales did some real interesting things in 2009 -- like manifesting a sales growth rate of 100% over 2008. Consumer pulled 11.3 million off the shelves in Q4 alone.

Why the surge in iPod Touch interest and what does this have to do with slate tablet PCs?

As millions of buyers of the iPod Touch eloquently demonstrate, consumers WANT the connectivity, 100,000+ applications and portability of a mobile device as defined by what the iPhone offers. They want this functionality so bad, they'll carry a separate phone, even though the total package is available.

Perhaps that's why Microsoft rushed out Steve Ballmer at CES with an HP slate tablet, and multiple slate PCs and new tablets were all out with concepts, including Dell. Could they be anticipating what Apple may be trotting out in the tablet world at the end of January?

So why such interest in tablets - slate-like, thin and powerful? Try out the following:

• Ultra-easy-to-use, HD screen, light-weight computing horsepower that you can carry around like a magazine?


• The ability to instantly access both business and entertainment options without the hassle of booting-up a three pound laptop?


• New convergence opportunities galore - tablets may well become fixtures around consumer HD TVs, dropping TV spot AD ratings even further on both cable and commercial stations (unless they're timed to push out messages to tablets) as consumer check e-mail and surf during long commercial breaks muted out.


• Enhanced and customized consumer content that transcends "breaking news" which consumers will happily pay for, reversing trends of consumer reluctance to buy online content. Newspapers (particularly those who have cross-trained their journalists in video) could see a remarkable resurgence in an online realm.


• Real videophones for mass use, as tablets incorporate video cameras and link up to other tablets in hot-spots and wireless-enhanced homes/offices across the world (Skype, look out), much like fax machines suddenly hit their tipping point.


• If all of the above occurs, why text? Why even go to work? If you can carry a lightweight video connection around, that's realtime facetime.

Now if Steve Jobs has a tablet that can achieve all of this...

David Ogilvy used to assert in a 1960s creative world that content was king. If touchscreen tablets really deliver this capacity, we could be looking at a disruptive technology of extreme magnitude, touching virtually part of our 21st century lives. Content will not only be king, it will dominate.

I'm buying one.

eMarketer: YouTube will decide presidential election

Now that we're nearing the 4th month of the not-so-new year, take a look back at eMarketer's predictions for 2008 and decide for yourself.
Anticipating the recession that we appear to be in, eMarketer made 10 predictions, casting forth possibly the most interesting oracle: YouTube will decide the presidential election.
Here's how they put it: "YouTube attracts the most online traffic and is consistently rated the favorite social media site by US Internet users.
"YouTube will play a decisive role in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election by either airing a user-submitted clip that embarrasses a leading candidate or setting the tone of the campaign through its series of sponsored debates."
YouTube certainly has brought down numerous other public figures (including one notable shock jock) with user-edited and submitted videos. When the election is over some seven months hence, wonder if we'll see new tomes toting how public figures need to have a specific YouTube strategy in achieving their objectives.
In case you're interested, here is a list of eMarketer's complete predictions for online behavior (commentary in parentheses):

1) Online ads remain resilient (and nearly recession proof)
2) Video surge slows. (bandwidth issues - or will people continue to accept garage-level rough-cut production?)
3) Social network advertising hits $1.6 billion (Facebook is now running political ads!)
4) Networking goes beyond MySpace and Facebook (links to mulitple sites and more of the proposed Web 3.0 will start appearing)
5) YouTube decides the election (still waiting on this one)
6) Beijing Olympics pumps up ad spending (the Olympic Torch/Tibey gaffee is playing in here)
7) Buy online, pick-up in-store becomes expected feature (this could be the resurrection of the original virtual shopping pieces that everyone expected back during the dotcom fizzled revolution)
8) Movie downloading hits the mainstream (One of our clients, Smithville, is rolling out Fiber-to-the-Home with fiber speeds up to an astonishing 100 mbps - that's industrial strength broadband - with movie downloads that take like 40 seconds for a two-hour movie; with that kind of connectivity, why would you ever want to burn up $4 gallon gas to drive to Blockbuster?)
9) Music marketers roll out new business models (as the CD continues to die, watch for more advertising-supported Web sites that offer free or subsidized/subscription downloads)
10) Dynamic ads heighten gaming revenue potential (gazillion-dollar product placement and related games for the upcoming Iron Man movie kind of sums this one up)

More and more, it's an online world!