“Competition is storming out of every device and connection, and consumers have choices and leverage they never dreamed of,” David Carr reports for The New York Times. “But network television continues to waltz along, attracting advertisers in big numbers. Cable had a great year, and media octopuses like Time Warner and News Corporation continue to find plenty of profits. Big media companies still rely on huge, well-entrenched assets that include brands, distribution and capital.”
“[But] the inertia that has kept consumers from bolting from traditional content providers is beginning to erode as a new generation remakes media in its own image. Device companies and search outfits are intent on manufacturing their own content. And the migration of movies, music and video to the cloud could change the weather in a hurry,” Carr reports. “Steve Jobs taught us a bunch before he exited, but one of his most current lessons could be the one with the most far-reaching implications. Content has a price tag, which is reassuring, but the old dividing lines between television, radio, Web and print disappear within the four corners of a tablet.”
Carr reports, “The iPad is a screen on your lap that makes it easy to navigate toward a completely personal experience. That screen on your living room wall is going to have to perform the same way to remain relevant. As it has in many other areas of technology, the smartphone will point the way… When I switched from the first iPad, which took a few seconds to boot, to the iPad 2, which stands ready for duty every time I lift its cover, my use more than doubled. I expect that other devices will greet me in similar fashion. Navigating is as easy as a swipe of the finger or, in the case of the new iPhone, a verbal request to Siri… And everyone, especially the people at Apple, knows that the consumer response to its next big thing — iTV anyone? — will be a referendum on whether the company can prosper absent its visionary in chief.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ellis D.” for the heads up.]