Mobile Media vs. Portable Media

Move Over Mobile Media, Here Comes “Portable” Media

New data from Google this week shows that tablet usage spikes at night.  The implication is that we tend to use tablets out of the work environment when they can be enjoyed in conjunction with TV usage. In fact, as the research suggests, there is much concern about how much attention tablets are diverting away from broadcasts.  But there’s another way to look at this data – especially in combination with Amazon’s introduction of its Kindle Fire this week.

Though many of us are using our tablets in a “lean back” night time mufti-tasking work mode on our couches and easy-chairs, usage could be peaking at night because it is also being used for entertainment purposes, much like a TV.  But unlike a TV, it can be carried from room to room, shared with a friend or cradled when laying down.  In other words, it’s a “portable” media platform – distinct from a computer, TV or even mobile media such as a smart phone.

As we have all seen, mobile media has very  unique characteristics because it is primarily transactional in use, being relied on for everything from e-commerce to coupons.  That is not how early tablet usage seems to be trending.  And now, with a competitor to the iPad at a much lower price point, this media platform might grow exponentially.  That has been the history of media evolution in this country – when a more affordable option is introduced, the platform proliferates.

And with it might be the emergence of a whole new media category – portable media – that carries with it distinct usage and interaction characteristics.  As time goes on, as we have seen with other platforms, it will also carry content and advertising that is uniquely designed for the manner in which consumers use this platform.  And for enterprising content developers, media companies and marketers, that means an opportunity to pioneer a  whole new way of generating dialogue.

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Dean DeBiase is the Chairman and CEO of entertainment.com, the leading provider of the most recognized and purchased consumer discount, promotion and coupon service. He is known as an expansion phase CEO with a track record scaling emerging growth companies and embedding entrepreneurial-grade talent into multinational corporations. He’s a co-author of the best-selling The Big Moo.