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Tablet computers help boost sales(Guardian Web Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The advent of tablet computers prompted the analysts who monitor sales of PCs and smartphones to create a new category to describe them – "media consumption tablets". It may not roll off the tongue, but the name they chose speaks volumes about the way in which the Apple iPad and its competitors have transformed the market. Unlike PCs the iPad and rival devices, including Motorola's Xoom, Samsung's Galaxy Tab and BlackBerry-maker RIM's PlayBook, are primarily designed for reading and viewing. Slate-like tablets with no physical keyboards encourage content providers – and that includes advertisers – to create new types of material. Millions of people have bought tablets: Apple alone sold more than 14m iPads in 2010. That is changing consumers' relationships with computer screens. A survey carried out by technology research company Gartner in May found that whereas 47% of laptop users found screen reading harder than reading printed text (and 33% found it the same), for tablets the numbers were reversed: 52% found it easier, 42% as easy. Younger readers are particularly relaxed about on-screen reading. Effective campaigns On a tablet, advertising can have an entirely different impact. Rather than being limited to banner ads or attention-grabbing, but irritating, pop-up ads, tablets can offer full-page adverts which are almost as compelling as the original content, and even offer an interactive experience. Animation, links, sound and augmented reality can all be employed to create a more effective promotional campaign. There are other ways to monetise advertising too: the Guardian's Eyewitness app, for example, is available on both Apple's iPad and Google Android tablets. It showcases the best photography in the paper, for free – but it is sponsored by the photography company Canon, which offers photography tips and other information. Similarly, research published in March by software company MovingMedia+ demonstrated the extra value of iPad advertising: it found that readers spend 35% more time on an iPad page than the print page of the same title, and 60% more time on an advert in the iPad version of a title than the print version. Publishers are making big pushes into the tablet space, including Condé Nast, which has launched high-profile tablet versions of flagship titles, such as Vogue and GQ, and Seven, which produces Project, the world's first iPad-only magazine. Although it's early days for digital media on tablets, the beneficial effects can already be seen. In mid-May the UK and US magazine group Future Publishing announced six-monthly figures that showed digital advertising revenue in the UK up 44% – enough to make up for a 10% fall in print ad revenue. (c) 2011 Guardian Newspapers Limited. |