Sitting down in a restaurant for what should be a pleasant meal is consumed with friends checking and refreshing their phone apps every other minute. Wherever you go it's now a rare sight not to see phones or tablets in people’s hands with an estimated 1.75 billion people now being a Smartphone user in 2014. (emarketer, 2014).
Technology nowadays just seems to be for me personally big shot companies trying to outdo each other with feeding consumers with the latest gadgets. Due to the expansion of technology happening at such a fast pace, the demand and expectations of what publishers release are exceedingly high and need to push the boundaries in the consumers eye in order for them to commit to purchasing their products.
For example, the purchase of smartphones for publishers is a goldmine platform in which to create sales figures. The long awaited iPhone 6 that went up for sale on 19th September, saw queues of ‘around 1,000 people outside the Covent Garden store,’ (Williams, 2014). The impact of this and how publishers can use this to their advantage is to provide a service of apps which will also increase the number of their downloads and target audience.
Apple and other phone companies have a guaranteed audience as the gadgets sell at a retail price people can afford giving consumers what they want. The launch of the iPhone 6 sees the devices holding memory up to 128GB depending on which model you chose from, (Apple, 2014). This for publishers means they can provide the growing market with apps which consumers can download the data onto their phones.
However, keeping up with the rate in which devices are produced may prove to be hard for publishers as the issue they are finding it hard, ‘to maintain prices similar to the print products,’ (p.166, Hall). Hall (2013), continues to explain that consumers believe that because they are not paying for all the extra methods in which for instance a book is made, realistically e-books and apps should have a cheaper retail price then that of an actual product.
The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies produced by Gartner (Timbrell, 2014), indicates that gadgets such as the popular Google glasses and the latest iWatch, launching in 2015, are not in fact as popular as people would expect. The model illustrates that 'Wearable User Interface' will within 5 to 10 years be in its 'Peak of Inflated Expectations,' However, it also shows that it will slowly begin to decline. Could this be because in this modern day and age we are becoming too elaborate in what we want but not actually what we need?
Wearable technology like the iWatch, ‘is poised to shake up the growing wearable industry,’ (Strange, 2014). Publishers know that with the limited space display they have with the wearable technology they will have to selective in what to distribute. As these wearables can be used by the audience, 'to digest content- including videos, sound, limited text and images,' (Wpengine, 2014). The impact wearable technology may have on the publishing industry is that it is 'a new type of data to take advantage of,' (Jerby, 2014), allowing publishers to manipulate the software in order to create and pitch their own editions to the public which alone is a competitive market.
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Bibliography
Apple Store, 2014. [Online] Available at: http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/compare/ (Accessed: 18th October 2014).
Emarketer, (16th Jan, 2014). ‘Smartphone Users Worldwide Will Total 1.75 Billion in 2014’ [Online] Available at: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-Users-Worldwide-Will-Total-175-Billion-2014/1010536 (Accessed: 11th October 2014).
Hall, F. (2013). ‘The Business of Digital Publishing: An introduction to the digital book and journal industries.’ (p.33) Routledge (Accessed: 11th October 2014).
Jerby, T. (22nd Oct, 2014) 'Will Wearable Tech Impact Mobile Marketing?' [online] Available at: http://www.codefuel.com/blog/will-wearable-tech-impact-mobile-marketing/ (Accessed: 25th November 2014).
Strange, A. (10th Sept, 2014). ‘Inside the Apple Watch: the Tech Behind Apple’s New Wearable.’ [Online] Available at: http://mashable.com/2014/09/09/inside-the-apple-watch/ (Accessed: 22nd October 2014).
Timbrell, N. 2014. New Technology and Publishing [Lecture, Publishing Media Year 2]. Oxford Brookes University, 7th October 2014.
Williams, R. (19th Sept, 2014). ‘Fans Queue Outside Apple’s London Stores for New iPhone 6.’ [Online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/iphone/11106696/Fans-queue-outside-Apples-London-stores-for-new-iPhone-6.html (Accessed: 11th October 2014).
Wpengine, (8th Jan, 2014). ‘What Does Wearable Technology Mean for Content Managers.’ [Online] Available at: http://wpengine.com/2014/01/08/wearable-technologies-mean-content-managers/ (Accessed: 22nd October 2014).