Free Porn for the ipad

Whilst Steve Jobs and Apple are looking to have an apps market free from porn (and quite understandable), it looks like some companies have identified there is an adult niche when it comes to the ipad. YourPorn and launched a free ipad optimised site with video content. Given that it’s delivered over the web, there’s not a lot Mr Jobs can do about it.
As with other technologies could it be that porn will drive sales of the ipad. It has a lot going for it. Being small and highly portable the ipad can easily be used in privacy, but at the same time it offers a high resolution screen for the best user experience. I’m sure there’s a joke to be made about it coming with a wipe clean screen.
So, like it or not, ‘adult content’ is often the driver of new technology adoption, and it may well take the same role with the ipad.

Sofa Surfers: a new media channel?

This blog is to stake my claim as the originator of the Sofa Surfer. What is a Sofa Surfer? It started with the advent of the smartphone and the iphone in particular. With fast, easy access to the internet, users could quickly check their emails, update their Facebook status, send a Twitter message or just check IMDb to see who that actor was in the movie you’re watching. Studies, such as Orange’s Exposure 2 found that most mobile browsing was done at home, typically on the sofa watching the TV. Whilst there is evidence to support a number of people in front of the TV with their laptops on, that is not the same as the ‘quick dip’ of mobile browsing.
The appearance of tablet PCs and particularly the ipad will serve to develop this growing form of browsing. A survey by comScore found that most ipad users are interested in browsing and email, not necessarily the reading of ebooks that Apple et al are hoping for.
With these new browsing patterns comes the potential for a new media channel: Sofa Surfers are not out and about looking in shops, but by the same token they are not at the computer doing hardcore web browsing. They are relaxed and looking for entertainment. Will this be a route by which content providers and advertisers are looking to engage with customers? We’ll have to wait and see.

Keep taking the tablets: users go all out for the ipad

OK, a rather poor pun with which to talk about Apple’s Tablet PC, the ipad. However, ahead of Saturdays US launch, predictions by research firms, comScore and NPD Group suggest that 15-18% of consumers are considering an ipad, and around 9-10% will buy. The preferred uses include internet and email with some interest in e-books and music. It looks like the ipad will create a new demographic in the form of the ‘sofa surfer’.

Preditions of sales volumes are hard to come by but a guess would suggest 2-3 million units in the first year with 3.5 to 6 million units in year two. Given that the iphone sold close to 50m units in the first two years, that is way below it’s smaller mobile cousin. Will it be enough to create a new genre of computer and a significant group representing the sofa surfer.

How many ipads can Apple sell? 10.5m according to Gartner

The talk is all about how Apple have (once again) redefined the market, and that the ipad will do to publishing what the ipod did to music. So, basically bugger up the business model once and for all! Gartner’s predictions seem to be holding that out with a first year sales of 10.5 million. The iphone has sold 50+ million, so it looks like the ipad will be doing pretty well at those kind of volumes. Personally I’m not convinced. The ipad fills a niche, but it really is a niche, and will not be mass market. There, I’ve stuck my neck out … lets see if I’m proven wrong at some later date.

Will the Apple ipad change everything?

The ‘change everything’ phrase comes from the iphone adverts. To some extent (but not entirely), Apple were right about the phone. The app store, the touch screen and the functionality brought about some fundamental changes in the way that we use our smartphones. So will the ipad have the same kind of effect in the tablet market? The short answer is no. The ipad will not significantly change the game.
For a start, where does the ipad sit in the market? Is it a mobile phone? Is it a lap top? Or a games console? Or media player? Whilst it is all of these, it is also none of these. Even with it’s superb screen and interface, there are other devices that do all those things much better. Why would I get an over-sized phone when I can get an iphone that fits in my pocket? Why would I replace my laptop with an ipad or is it an additional device (and do I really want to carry another device)?
Having read numerous blogs from app developers, techies and industry thinkers, on the whole no one is that excited about the ipad. The main thing going for it seems to be the price (and how often can we say that about an Apple product?). The cheapest models undercut the iphone price-wise and Apple’s own lap tops. Throw in an operator subsidy for the 3G models and you will be able to pick them up for next to nothing. Apple have proved people wrong on many occasions, but neither have they always been right. I think the ipad clearly has appeal, but to a limit audience. It certainly won’t be replacing our iphones or laptops any time soon.
This photo sums up alot of industry feeling about the ipad:

Apple ipad: a new medium for marketing?

I pose the question because a number have people have mentioned that notepads could represent a new medium for marketing and advertising. Certainly with Apple’s entry into the market with the ipad, they may be creating a significant new channel.
Apple have managed it to create something of a new marketing channel with the iphone and more specifically with apps. Even though the iphone represents a tiny fraction of the total mobile users (and less than 2% of the UK market), brands have been rushing to get their apps into the appstore. Market penetration aside, the iphone has caught the imagination of marketers who are providing everything from games to utilities on behalf of brands.
So what of the ipad? Well it’s not a mobile phone. And it’s not a laptop either. It sits somewhere in the middle of everything. It is more like a personal DVD player and hand-held games console type of machine, than it is a mobile phone.
Will it create a new marketing medium? It’s too early to say for sure, but I’m going to stick my neck out and so no. There are a few reasons for that: firstly, I don’t see it having the same market penetration as an iphone or an ipod. There are 50+ million iphones and nearly 200 million ipods out there. I cannot see how the ipad fills enough of a need to match those figures. Although if anyone can create a new mass market, then Apple can.
Secondly, the nature of the consumer engagement is different to a mobile phone. Mobiles are something we carry with us all the time. We call our loved ones on it, and we personalise them with backgrounds and ringtones. Clearly the ipad will not sit in the same space. I can imagine carrying an ipod when I’m on a journey, but for day-to-day use, I doubt it. And I’ll be carry a phone as well. The ipad is not a replacement for the mobile handset. Apart from anything else it won’t be available in 3G form straight away. Therefore the impact as a marketing medium is unlikely to be as significant as a mobile phone.
Ultimately the impact and effectiveness of any marketing will be down to our particular relationship with the technology. In itself the ipad brings nothing really new – it runs the same apps as the iphone with a few bits on top. Whereas the iphone was revolutionary in respect of its approach to apps, the ipad simply runs with that existing channel.
Ultimately it’s a case of waiting to see what happens with Apples new tablet. So, watch this space!